The Space Shuttle (April 12 1981 - July 21 2011)

NASA

 
Yes, I know it cost a fortune when so many people on Earth have little or nothing, but like Bill Hicks once said if we stopped spending all those billions on weapons of mass destruction we could both feed the planet and travel together to the stars, right?

Brian Eno - 'Always Returning' (1983)

[More amazing pictures here]

Touching Heaven

Somewhere in between dropping the girlies off at Harry Potter 7 and loading up with weekend veggies at the market I managed a return visit to the very splendid Collectors Record Centre in Kingston on Saturday with only ten minutes to go till he closed (continued thanks to Artog for the original recommend). In the briefest of flicks in the 'all LPs £1' crates I turned up a near mint condition copy of this, which was rather nice, and was presented by the proprietor with one of his business cards after asking if he ever had any Lewis Taylor albums in.

All those years of going to Kingston and I never knew about this wonderful place; I hope it doesn't disappear now I've only just found it.

Working Week - 'Touching Heaven' (1986)
Working Week - 'South Africa' (1986)

Friday Reggae # 29

Here's a song I've had for donkey's on a fantastic tape made off the radio in Jamaica in the late 80s and brought back from his honeymoon by my ancient companero, known here latterly as Camp Freddy. 'Get me some reggae!' I'd said, and when he asked in his hotel where there might be a local record shop, the barman offered to do him a cassette himself. How cool is that? I must upload it in all its genre-spanning lovers to dancehall to ragga with Jamaica FM jingles magnificence sometime.

Truth is, I crazily hadn't labelled this fave as Cool Ruler Gregory Isaacs until Webbie posted it in his excellent Peel Podcast earlier this week.

Things come around, innit.

I'm off to the shop for some lime for the gin.

Gregory Isaacs - 'Mind You Dis (Rude Boy)' (1988)

Stranger Song

Friday Reggae # 28

Bit special this one.

Nuff said.

Sugar Minott - 'Jah Jah Children' (1977)

From Darkest Peru

So. I've been reading A Bear Called Paddington (1958), the first book in the famous children's series by Michael Bond.

I suppose it's an unlikely choice of reading matter for someone who turns 46 in three weeks time but then, to be fair, I have told you I'm a Soft Southern Jessie. I started June with a hardback copy of Tony Blair's A Journey from the library, but after the early chapters on the first few months of power, the Irish peace process and Princess Diana's death, my interest has started to wane a tad. I'm at the stage of it where Iraq is looming like a great toxic cloud and I'm not sure I've got the stomach for it, or the authorial self-justification it'll bring. That the bloody thing weighs a ton and is not easy to lug about on the train, tube and bus hasn't helped either.

The Paddington temptation came my way when the youngest daughter dumped it by the front door it in a pile of books to be donated to the school summer fair. I fished it out, a little piqued, since it was a favourite from when I was her age I'd spun heavily with her hoping she'd love, and harrumphing 'You can't throw that out!', commandeered it.

I thought I'd just read the first page over a cup of tea on Saturday, but of course I got (re)hooked. I'm a pretty miserable bugger at the moment, for a number of reasons to dull to go into here, and to move about again in that cosy late 50s world of hot baths, housekeepers and marmalade sandwiches, grumpy London Underground inspectors and stuffy department store managers (rightful recipients of the Paddington Hard Stare) and convivial cocoas with Mr Gruber in his Portobello Road antique shop was.....therapy. I slept better than I have for months.

Clearly I am a troubled individual retreating into the comforting meta-topography of a retrospectively idealised childhood when I should be squaring up in a manly fashion to the raw challenges of Now.

Or maybe I'm just tired.

Herbert Chappell - 'Paddington Bear (TV Theme)' (1975)

Danday

Who is the gaucho amigo?
Why is he standing
In your spangled leather poncho
And your elevator shoes?
Bodacious cowboys
Such as your friend
Will never be welcome here
High in the Custerdome

God I love this song.

Steely Dan - 'Gaucho' (1980)

PS: Lots of fun for all the family at the Steely Dan Dictionary.

Attached

Sorry, bit late tonight: a boozy lunch with ancient friends overspilled into gins in a (shockingly) expensive W1 bar.

But in the end I remembered my responsibilities (and overdraft) and came right on back to you.

Bon weekend x

Orbital - 'Attached' (1994)

A Hold On Me

After the big storms, the clear air of a perfect June morning somewhere in England.

Dot sounded lovely last night at sundown, so I asked her to pop back today.

Dot Allison - 'Mo' Pop' (1999)

Friday Reggae # 27

I cannot get enough of this lovely version of a lovely song by Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, and neither can the eldest daughter who's been walking to school with it on her iPo these past weeks. She is an eleven and three quarter year old with taste, innit.

Sharon Forrester - 'Silly Wasn't I?' (1973)

Tell you what, I'll throw in the original too.

Heavens, look at the time! It's gin o'clock!

Juvenile Impulses Sway

The Queen Is Dead was released 25 years ago last week. Such statements are sure to make a person feel old.

For me, back then, our Finals were just done and an early summer not unlike this one was underway. I was looking for a job but couldn't find a job and I even think I asked in Walthamstow McDonalds at one point.

I know.

In the end I couldn't hold on in London, and fell back to Devon. It was a strange, sad time in limbo.

This isn't even from that album. And not from that year, but the one before.

Its insouciance suits my mood today, and the weather.

For me it's forever Sue Gilchrist ironing in the front room in Brixton, at the time of the later riots, and singing along.

The Smiths - 'Stretch Out And Wait' (1985)

(I've posted it before of course. Old people repeat themselves, you'll find)

Get The Funky Drummer In Here

Clyde Stubblefield

At 5'35 the most sampled break in musical history.

Don't turn it loose cos it's a Mother. 

Gin!

James Brown - 'Funky Drummer' (1969)

Bon

For once a 'promotional film' as beautiful/strange as the record it is made for.

She'll catch her death in that nightie.

Drop

I think it was the first time I realized that I can change the world, or at least change the way that my sister hit the clock on every tick just to see what happened. The time has really flown by I guess and it's hard to think of the way it might've been, or remember very specifically the words and all the rest of it. I was down, more than I'll ever be probably. That has more to do with it all together, like the orange trees in the backyard and it's Easter and it just won't end. Fucking Phil, he's off on his board somewhere and I'm just sitting here getting more and more lost with everything. And that was the thing about it, it's not as if a cousin had promised something and taken it away; it was like nobody could share my so-called dreams, which really meant none of it was happening. And that reach around midnight left with just about that - nothing. There's not anything particular about it either and I think that the whole thing gets vaguer every second, but I am too, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's even funny when you stop to realize, I'm just nineteen, and how serious can anything be anyway? Not very.

Blog tennis? Drew.

Drop Nineteens - 'Kick The Tragedy' (1992)

Blue Juice

Some music for the new colour scheme.

Jimmy McGriff - 'Blue Juice' (1968)

Italian Blog

"Just remember this - in this country they drive on the wrong side of the road".

Salute!

Matt Monro - 'On Days Like These' (1969)

Blog

Then came the rain, falling steady and soft - and after so long away that the kittens are staring at it baffled, or bursting in through the catflap, grumpy and damp.

The girls are back at school, the house is quiet - it's just me, this keyboard, Astrud....and the rain, falling steady and soft.

*makes tea*

Astrud Gilberto - 'The Gentle Rain' (1965)

Friday Reggae # 26

Hot, hot, hot here tonight - will be cracking open the rosados for sure.

And Roberta Flack? We'll accept your resignation now.

Marcia Griffiths - 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' (1974)

June Groove

Is the sun back then? I hope the sun's back. Because then I can post this summery thang and we can all groove along nicely, I expect.

And it's Thursday already and where's half term holiday going, eh?

Donald Byrd - 'Think Twice' (1974)

Gil Scott-Heron (1st April 1949 - 27th May 2011)

I have made a cup of tea and put on the computer and heard the news.

He was just 62 and, what makes it even sadder, had reached a new creative peak after spending most of the new century in and out of jail.

He was a towering figure in African-American music and it's impossible to overestimate his influence.

I'm New Here is a terrific record, a fine epitaph.

Peace Go With You Brother.

Gil Scott-Heron - 'On Coming From A Broken Home (Pt.1)' (2010)
Gil Scott-Heron - 'On Coming From A Broken Home (Pt.2)' (2010)

Davy H Is A-Wey

I'm taking a day off today to walk the Wey Navigations in Deepest Surrey. I've strolled little stretches of this before, but this time my mate Robbie and I are looking to do the whole twenty miles in one go, from Godalming to where the river joins the Thames at Weybridge.

I mention this because it's planned that we celebrate with a few pints at the Finish, quite rightly; and this will mean I'm not back at my Blog Station tonight till a tad later than usual.

I'll endeavour to Tweet any significant developments through the day (that box on the right'll have what we should laughingly refer to as 'all the latest').

And I hope my very old and not at all state of the art walking boots hold out (as well as my knees, which could be described similarly).

Laters!

Fats Domino - 'I'm Walkin' ' (1957)

Some Thoughts On Dylan At 70

Given that this blog got its very name from a Bob Dylan lyric there hasn't been much of him here over the years. This is partly because I figure that like a strong single malt whisky (probably an Islay one) you either love him, in which case you will have a cupboard full of his stuff already - and maybe even a few bootleg distillations besides - or you can't abide him, in which case all the proselytising in the world isn't going to change your mind; it's also partly because Dylan is signed to Sony (once Columbia) and they seem to stamp on any 'unauthorised' use of his music (even things on YouTube) pretty sharply, in what I would argue is a thoroughly unenlighted Old Testament sort of a way, but hey, that's up to them.

The first Bob LP I bought was the old Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, when I was 17 (and he was 42); it was the 'protest' stuff and obvious hits that drew me in. Then I heard Highway 61 Revisited and 'Desolation Row', a whole strange, brilliant Beats world of surrealism opening up, Bringing It All Back Home and a new album Shot Of Love (6th Form), Blood On The Tracks and an even better new one Infidels (University), The Freewheelin', At Budokan, Desire, Street Legal and then the vast back catalogue of unreleased stuff courtesy my small Welsh friend Stevie, who really is a Dylan obsessive.

Now, with me in my mid-late 40s and His Bobness at 70, his 21st century material sounds as good to me, better even, than anything he's done. A grizzled old ex-gunfighter with a burdensome past, 'living on rice and beans', Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven (Western analogies always work with Bob, and for him) looking wrly out (and in) on human fallibility, his recent songs are shot through with heart and warmth and gallows humour and as packed as ever with quotable lines from the best screenplay that never existed, as well as a few that did.

He's the best writer rock's ever produced; he's just 'a song and dance man'.

Bless him.

Happy Birthday Mr Zimmerman.

[No music, for the reasons given. I'm happy to make recommendations if you think you can handle yer liquor x]

Friday Reggae # 25

 To be honest, the Romanian Orphans Charity Shop record bin is not my usual place to uncover rare reggae 45s; it really has rather more to offer the serious Ray Conniff collector.

Imagine my surprise and delight, then, at finding this there today - for 50p.

Produced by the legendary Joe Gibbs, with a riddim not unlike the one on Willie Williams' 'Armagideon Time'.

The 'B' side is a 'Version' of the 'A' - and, hey, we like it that way.

I've had some sort of tummy bug all day but given that the world is ending tomorrow, I might still rally for a drink if someone's going to the bar.

Dennis Brown - 'Stop Your Fussing & Fighting' (1977)
Dennis Brown - 'Together Brothers' (1977)

In Order To Dance

I could have sworn blind I posted this a few years back but, honestly, it appears not.

What an oversight, since it is bloody marvellous (as I was reminded when it popped up on Shuffle tonight).

They're from Paris you know.

Mais oui.

Tom & Joyce - 'Para Bailar' (2002)

Can't Hide Love

This weather's confusing me - I'm all black jeans and boots one minute and shorts and sandals the next. Even the reggae's not the same when the temperature drops. I continue to be, nonetheless, in a funky-vibey-jazzy-dubby mood; no not those guitars, they're too noisy and crude.

I've discovered Putney Library, and it's coming up with the goods.

Carmen McRae - 'Can't Hide Love' (1974)

Friday Reggae # 24

Flippin' 'eck this is a sexy record.

I need a man
You need a woman
Come on get yourself some
Don't refrain

Sorry I'm late. Blogger #fail !

Barbara Jones - 'Come And Get Some' (1975)

Liberdade

From this compilation, which I bought half my lifetime ago.

A piece of music I've liked so much for so long I can't believe I haven't posted it before.

Existiu
Um el dorado negro no Brasil

Gilberto Gil - 'Quilombo' (1984)

[Based on a true story]

Friday Reggae # 23

It's much compiled and very pop-famous, so I'm sure you've already got it, but I'm proudly computerising the original 45 here, snapped up just this afternoon from my currently high-yielding local charity shop for 50p.

Mainstream UK radio largely refused to play reggae records in the early 70s, so desperate-for-airplay labels (in)famously put strings on them. These get pretty close to being a bit much for me on the 'B' side, but on the 'A' the strength of the arrangement and loveliness of Mr Holt's vocal more than neutralise their effect, in my humble.

I've started drinking early tonight because of the stress of having two young male pussycats in the house who lost their cojones today.

Hold on in there boys.

John Holt - 'Help Me Make It Through The Night' (1974)
John Holt - 'Tell Me Why' (1974)

Sock It To Me, Baby

How many times could I listen to this in a single day? Hundreds. Especially for that bit at 1:33.

And Ms Ally'll have it on 45, I shouldn't wonder.

Phyllis Dillon - 'Perfidia' (1967)

Jùjú For Your May

This was a fun, unusual, thing to find in my local charity shop on Saturday, still in the cellophane, just a quid. It's the US edition (the UK cover, which I well remember from that heady time when all the hipsters were digging African music, looked like this); it has a little red $7.49 price tag from Strawberries Records on it. I wonder how it wound up in SW14?

Jùjú for your May, baby.

King Sunny Adé & His African Beats - 'Tolongo' (1983)