Album Sleeve Challenge Day 8

Today we visit Motown. There are so many Motown compilations, but this is one I was given in the late 70s, and I still have it. All collections of this kind have gaps, of course, but this is a pretty decent set of 20 tracks, including Grapevine, Reach Out I'll Be There, Dancing in the Street, etc.

Back in 2001, we were visiting good friends in Dearborn, Michigan, so being that close to Detroit meant a visit to Motown Studios was irresistible. That part of town was still very much an African-American area.  The museum itself was surprisingly modest, with no official car park and very little signage, except for the one immediately outside.

When we got inside, there were only a handful of people there, and it was only a few dollars to go in. We were immediately identified as Brits, of course, and the man who guided us round told us that quite a few of their visitors were from the UK. David Bowie had dropped in a few weeks ago, and Paul McCartney had also visited in his time.

The whole place is remarkably small and modest, yet all the amazing classic hits from 1958 to 1970 were recorded there, so the atmosphere was amazing. We were also showed the flat upstairs, where artists such as Diana Ross would pack records into boxes between sessions to be mailed out to record shops. In the 1960s in the US, racial barriers were still very real obstacles even in the music industry. 

Oddly, despite the UK having plenty of racism of its own, the artists of Motown found it a very receptive place for their music, although things went slowly for the bus full of Motown stars working its way around the country in 1965. However, after national TV exposure on a Ready Steady Go special on TV, the chart hits started to follow.

I think my love of Motown come not just from the music and the memories of it being on the radio as a kid, but it also connects with a long-term interest I have had with the civil rights movement in the US, and the struggle for equality that these artists had to endure.

And it's a rare example of music that [almost] makes me want to dance...

Album Sleeve Challenge Day 7

This one gets us into the 80s to when I was a student, regularly buying albums (often second hand from a market stall). However, I bought this one brand new and it's by a band I have seen live three times - Big Country. I saw them first touring the debut album The Crossing, later supporting Queen at Knebworth, and finally acoustic in Morecambe a couple of years ago. They were a band that were immediately recognisable in their sound, and their songs had an edge to them - with plenty of social comment. It's probably one of the best protest albums of the 80s.

Steeltown made no. 1 in the UK, but wasn't a massive success commercially worldwide - partly because songs about 80s UK industrial decline and Thatcher's Britain didn't have great traction in the US market. However, it's a fine legacy for the late Stuart Adamson to have left us.

Album Sleeve Challenge Day 6

This is where you can find the explanation for the album sleeve choices I'm placing on Facebook. It's been interesting to list what has been influential, rather than what has been a favourite, although sometimes the two are the same.

Next up is Liege and Lief by Fairport Convention. I've tended to regard my musical tastes as 'acoustic' rather than 'folk', as I wanted to avoid the image of beardy bloke with finger in the ear singing in a nasal tone about fair damsels in meadows. Fairport certainly do traditional folk, but the musicianship and the vocals of Sandy Denny put them in a different class, but also opened up folk music to me. 

Just after Debbie died, some friends invited me to join them at the Cropredy Festival in the August, and so discovering folk, and beginning to recover are kind of closely associated. No Cropredy this year, but I intend to be there in 2021.

If you're a bit of a sceptic [and I would understand that], check out Crazy Man Michael as a track.

Album Sleeve Challenge Day 5

I think I will struggle to complete the facebook thing to name 10 albums that have influenced my musical taste, but here's the next one. What interested me about the challenge was the focus on influence. This isn't a list of my favourite albums, although there is overlap.

If we are talking influence, then there ought to be a jazz album on here somewhere. I could have gone for the more obvious Miles Davis, but my dad was a fan of jazz from a slightly earlier era - Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, etc. I remember him going to Music Inn in Nottingham, which could do specialist stuff, in order to get a copy of this album (no Amazon back then). 

Concert by the Sea is taken from a concert by Errol Garner in 1955 in Carmel, California. It wasn't even a planned recording - a radio engineer from Armed Forces Radio did it and it was adopted and released. The original LP had 40 or so minutes of tracks, not in the order they were performed. It was a huge success. You can now get a CD with the full concert, which I bought for my dad a couple of years ago.

The Beatles got me playing the guitar, Nick Drake has made me want to learn more; I can't really say what Errol Garner did, but I know he's part of the soundtrack, and that is why he is here.

If you don't know anything else by Garner, you will probably know the song "Misty", which he wrote, even if it's only because of the movie Play Misty for Me. He couldn't write music; he recorded things for colleagues to transcribe. Misty isn't on the album, so here he is playing it.

Album Sleeve Challenge Day 4

Not sure I'll get to the end of the Facebook thing to name 10 albums that have influenced my musical taste, but here's the next one. I'm providing the explanation of my choices over here on the blog, because the 'challenge' asks you not to do that in your Facebook post.

I discovered Nick Drake's music quite late in the day - not that there's a great quantity to discover. He managed 3 proper album releases before his premature death, and some archive material has been released since. No known live footage exists, and much about him remains a bit of a mystery.

However, his first album, Five Leaves Left, remains my favourite. In many ways it's a very simple production with enough strings to provide drama and atmosphere, but not so much that the songs get sanitised and drowned out. Richard Thompson contributes guitar on the opening track, and Danny Thompson [no relation] features on bass on several.

The different chords, tunings, rhythms and time signatures of his guitar work made me go back to my standard-tuned acoustic to see if I could learn new things after all these years. One day I'll master River Man. As an album, it's well worth a listen, and you may find you recognise at least one track.

Album Sleeve Challenge Day 3

Continuing with the Facebook thing to name 10 albums that have influenced your musical taste, here's the next one. I'm providing the explanation of my choices over here on the blog, because the challenge asks not to do that in your Facebook post.

It would be hard not to include the Beatles somewhere in this challenge, and I realised that if we are talking most influential album, this was the one. I got it at some point as a teenager, and around the same time I acquired a guitar. It wasn't very good, and I couldn't play much to start with, but armed with a Beatles song book from the library, it made me learn strumming rhythms and new chords. Eventually I could actually play along, and so the Beatles were key in getting me going with playing the guitar. 

This may not be my favourite album - and it's a compilation - but it contains some great songs, and it certainly had a lot of influence.

Album Sleeve Challenge Day 2

Over on Facebook, there's a thing going round where you are nominated to post the 10 albums that have influenced your musical taste. No explanation or review is part of the challenge, so I'm linking here in my Facebook post to provide some background in the unlikely event of anyone wanting any.

I had just started secondary school when the Peter Gabriel era of Genesis was happening. I remember listening to Foxtrot and Selling England By The Pound at a friend's house, and later at university we listened to the back catalogue, with all its strangeness. We debated whether any of the albums after Gabriel were as good and compared them to other 'prog' rock of the era - Yes, Pink Floyd, King Crimson etc.

Aside from the musical merits and the strange and, at times, pretentious lyrics they have a particular sound to them. As well as Peter Gabriel's distinctive vocals and lyrics, the eerie sound of Mellotrons, tricky drumming and unexpected chord sequences intrigued me. Not sure how early Genesis has influenced me, but somehow I couldn't leave it out.

As a PS I probably ought to say I also likes some of the later material - notably the Genesis album of 1983, and I saw them live in 1987. But although it's not exactly cool to say so, I can't help wishing I could have been there for an early gig like some of my [older!] friends.

Album Sleeve challenge day 1

Over on Facebook, there's a thing going round where you are nominated to post the 10 albums that have influenced your musical taste. No explanation or review is part of the challenge, so I'm linking here in my facebook post to provide some background in the unlikely event of anyone wanting any.

First up: After the Goldrush by Neil Young

Neil Young is frustrating. His output has been varied and unpredictable, and at times really difficult to listen to. The first time I saw him live he was touring a strange album called Trans - lots of electronic effects, vocoders etc. Second time it was a mainly electric, but with a memorable but brief acoustic set in the middle.

When he is good, he is very good (but when he isn't...) It was in my first year at university that I first encountered Mr Young's output, and the early albums are really my favourites - Goldrush and Harvest are especially strong, although I often listen to the first two as well. After that, I'd suggest Rust Never Sleeps, Freedom and if you're a country fan Comes a Time or Harvest Moon. There's also a great early live release Live at Canterbury House, which is apparently an Episcopal Church chaplaincy centre.

But if you want to see Neil in action at his best, then the BBC in concert from 1971 is probably the place to go. Mainly tracks from Harvest feature. This kind of stuff made me want to improve my acoustic guitar playing.