The Best Song Wasn't The Single

This was my (new) Track Of The Year, in case anyone wondered. Terrific album, Channel Orange.

I also very much liked the lilting loveliness of the Lightships record, which sadly seems to have gone unheralded in all of those trendy end of year lists.




The Gregory Porter album had some absolutely beautiful things on it, like this...



...though I'm not sure that on the whole I liked it better than Water.

We loved Damon's Dr Dee at ENO, and it was splendid to meet yer man at the stage door after: there are two or three songs on the record I think are amongst the best stuff he's ever done. In the year of  'Under The Westway' and, oh yes, 'Poison' that was quite a thing.


 
I hope to see Bear's Den again in 2013 - as I felt the strange urge to scribble on Last FM,  I am in general too old and jaded to be easily impressed by acoustic guitar/ banjo-wielding beardy twentysomethings from the Home Counties, but these lads have talent and I think I *heart* them.

Their potato-printed EP had at least two of my favourite songs of the year on it ('Pompeii' and 'Stubborn Beast').

I liked the Chromatics cover of 'Ceremony' so much (thanks chocolategirl64) I'm going to investigate their album. And the Donald Fagen single swung, sorry Dan haterz.

As ever though, so much more of the music that was new to me in 2012 was, actually, old.

Thank you ally and Rob '99p Soul' Ryan, Darcy and Drew in particular for keeping my soul fires burning this year; Swiss Adam for, amongst much else, the heads-up on Michael Rother's 'Flammende Herzen' (wow - and I've still got to get some La Dusseldorf!); and all of you for your quips, tips and bloggy lurve.

Happy New Year x

The Chill

No, I really don't want anything more to eat or drink alright maybe just a crusty roll and, oh gone on then, that Guinness in the fridge isn't going to quaff itself.

Dot Allison - 'I Wanna Feel The Chill' (1999)

The (Seasonal) Smiling Hour

It'll be my famous fish pie tonight. And Carols From King's.

And, well yes, a nice cold Guinness I should think, plus a few Vina Sols.

Thank you for your company this year, you lovely people.

And have yourselves a Merry Little Christmas, do x

Tony Bennett - 'I'll Be Home For Christmas (live on the Jon Stewart Show)' (1994)

John Peel's Other Christmas Records

Have I been a tad parsimonious with me Christmas records this year?

Oh well, you know, what with one thing and another. Plus, I've posted most of my favourites before.

Can I more than make it up to you with this Box.net bandwidth-busting so grab-it-while-you-can complete upload, in two parts, of Peel's Christmas Eve show from 1992?

With his typically eclectic selection of doowop, blues, soul, punk, country, ragga, reggae and avant Christmas choons ?

'Guaranteed Greg Lake free' ?

Well, can I?

John Peel - 'John Peel's Other Christmas Records - Part One' (1992)
John Peel - 'John Peel's Other Christmas Records - Part Two' (1992)

Cheers!

[Tracklistings in Comments - and visible in the Lyrics tab if uploaded to iTunes].

Winterlude

I'm off to Devon for a couple of days, taking the girls to see their grandma, who will turn 90 on Christmas Eve, and hopefully their grandad, who's just been transferred to a care home, in a not entirely trauma-free fashion. It won't be easy - it even looks like we'll be driving into filthy weather.

Should be back Friday, though probably a little late for all the usual mallarkey here x

Saint Etienne - 'Driving Home For Christmas' (1995)

Yeah Baby

Once upon a time here....our occasional series of extended disco classics built into a magnificent library your whole family would enjoy.

Do you know, I miss those times.

So on probably the peak night for Christmas office parties nationwide (oh how glad I am to be free of all that) I'm posting this.

It's a davyh vinyl rip, as you can tell from the crackles.

They are crackles of love.

Pint of Pride please Glo.

Freeez - 'Southern Freeez (LP version)' (1981)

Sparkle

I mentioned on that Twitter recently that Ian McCulloch's 'Candleland' is one of those 'kind of sparkly-seasonal without being too Christmassy, too early' records, and so is this (not just because of the title).

Both tracks of course feature former Cocteaus (Liz Fraser with Mac) - well, you could always expect some, er, spangle-making from them.

I shall be off out for sort of a 'works' do tonight - deep breath.

Robin Guthrie - 'Sparkle' (2009)

In Memoriam December 10th 1941

The crew of the sinking HMS Prince of Wales abandoning ship to the destroyer Express

Seventy one years ago today Japanese aircraft torpedoed and sank the British battlecruiser HMS Prince Of Wales off the East coast of Malaysia with the loss of 327 men.

My Dad, an Ordinary Seaman of just 18 at the time, was a gunner on the ship, and survived. Had he not I would, of course, not be writing this now.

At around this time of year throughout the 80s and 90s Mum and Dad would attend Prince Of Wales crew reunions, although as the years went by the number of people there who'd actually survived the action steadily dwindled. My parents themselves stopped going a few years back, as they got older and less mobile and the long train journeys north to Liverpool or Newcastle became more and more difficult for them. Dad of course is still a 'survivor', but I don't suppose that as he sits in his chair in the hospital today he will remember the day.

The sinking of HMS Prince Of Wales and her sister ship HMS Repulse (with the loss of 508 men) was a significant moment in the history of warfare: these were the first ships to be sunk on the open sea by air power alone. But a self-deluding British Government believed them to be invincible - great symbols of Imperial Power.

My Dad used to tell me how the crew were told of the unlikelihood of any attack as the ships, intended to intimidate by their very presence, sailed towards Singapore.

'What about aeroplanes Sir?' he remembered asking, a little nervously.

'Aeroplanes?' scoffed an officer, 'You don't want to worry about aeroplanes son'.

----

The ships still lie 223 feet deep in the water off Kuantan in the South China Sea.

To this day it is traditional for any Royal Navy ship that passes nearby to hold a service in remembrance.

This is my small commemoration on behalf of my Dad: remembering for him, if you like.

The Smiling Hour

OK, I couldn't resist.

Brubeck is more than worthy of two posts this week, and this superb, live, extra-long 'Take Five' from French TV will get our Smiling Hour off with un swing.

Pint and a whisky chaser please Glo *croak* - it's a parky night and I've a pesky lurgy to shift.

Dave Brubeck (6th Dec 1920 - 5th Dec 2012)

Dave Brubeck has died, just one day short of his 92nd birthday.

He'd been playing and composing right until the end.

That track and that album were right there at the start of my foraging into jazz, aged 16. I play them now as often as I ever have.

Of course there were many other things over many other years too - many, I'm still discovering.
 
"You never know what's going to work," he once said, "You just go with what you believe in, whether it's a success or not".

Sleep tight sir.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet - 'Kathy's Waltz' (1959)

Yeah Baby

 

 A race of angels
Bound with one another
A dish of dollars
Laid out for all to see
A tower room at Eden Rock
His golf at noon for free
Brooklyn owes the charmer
Under me

His lady's aching
To bring a body down
She daily preaches
On where she wants to be
An evening with a movie queen
A face we all have seen
Brooklyn owes the charmer
Under me

A case of aces
Done up loose for dealing
A piece of island cooling in the sea
The whole of time we gain or lose
And power enough to choose
Brooklyn owes the charmer
Under me

Steely Dan - 'Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer Under Me)' (1972)

Sherry?

Yeah Baby

A BBC connection here too: this has been playing on trailers for The Hour.

Drove me crazy trying to remember what it was.

Bass and drum loop from Brubeck's 'Take Five', vocal sample from Marlena Shaw's 'Woman Of The Ghetto' live at the Montreux jazz festival; blouse model's own.

Sherry?

St. Germain - 'Rose Rouge' (2000)

2LO Calling

Did you know that BBC Radio turned 90 last week?

You might have missed it, on account of all the other brouhaha.

This is the commemorative 'sound collage' Damon Albarn made for broadcast across the Beeb's global network after they asked him nicely and let him have a rummage through the radio archives. There are snippets too of 21st century children airing their hopes and fears for the next 90 years.

I really like it.

The little tune he puts around the pips in the last thirty seconds is, in particular, gorgeous.

Thinking of putting this into a mix thingy along with clips from the shipping forecast, and some Eno.

Damon Albarn - '2LO Calling' (2012)

The Smiling Hour

A davyh vinyl rip.

Swingin'

Peggy Lee - 'Alright, Okay, You Win' (1962)

More Than Enough To Last

So, yes there's all that. And all the usual too - 'now featuring dark mornings'.

A breather, a mug of tea, some Marvin and Tammi?

Oh I think so, don't you?

Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - 'What You Gave Me' (1969)

Afraid Of The Dark

My Dad has dementia.

Last night we learned that he has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act because he has become aggressive towards my Mum, a woman he has loved unreservedly for 68 years. They took him away in an ambulance at 7pm.

I wrote here about my Dad's love of music, but I don't think the Readers Digest box sets have been played for years, most have gone to charity shops, and the easy listening cassettes are gathering dust on their crappy Woolworths plastic carousel.

Throughout my childhood he would sing random snatches of popular songs from the 40s and 50s in a bad, mock Howard Keel baritone, with parodic lyrics ('Hey there, you with the straw in your ears').

All those old Rodgers & Hammerstein numbers were grist to his mill of mangling.

He'd have gone for the Carousel version of this, but as his last son and a 60s baby, I'm posting Gerry.

And trying to keep it together.

The Freestyling Hour

So Mr Perry, what were the skies like when you were young?

"Bonkers"

I am grateful to the Laird Of Lanark for bringing this to my attention.

And I shall require a beverage.

The Orb featuring Lee 'Scratch' Perry - 'Golden Clouds' (2012)

Terry Callier (May 24 1945 - Oct 28 2012)

Heading back home from a big family blow-out lunch in deepest Country - first a train then, (occasional?) rain falling, a wait at the bus stop and in the back seat downstairs, never my favourite, an idle Twitter-noodle, to pass the time; to learn - this...

: (

Terry Callier -  'I'd Rather Be With You' (1973)

The Smiling Hour

Friday!

Half Term hols!

Vinyl-ripped rhythm & blues!

My shout!

Take it Esther!

Little Esther (Esther Phillips) - 'T'Ain't Whatcha Say It's Whatcha Do' (1956)

Midweek Groove

Something sparky for a gloomy Wednesday.

Vocals from 5:46 by producers the Mizell Brothers, who also sang on Bobbi Humphrey's splendid 'Harlem River Drive' which I tweeted earlier.

As well as producing groovy fusion records for Blue Note, Larry Mizell once worked as an electrical engineer and performed testing and reliability work on the Lunar Module for the Apollo space programme, fact fans.

Donald Byrd - 'Lansana's Priestess' (1973)

The Smiling Hour

It's been one hell of a week.

I shall require a beverage.

And some vinyl-ripped rhythm and blues (you'll like this one).

I do hope someone is going to the bar?

Otis Smith - 'You're So Good Looking' (1959)

Personal Message

The greatest Françoise Hardy song you've (probably) never heard.

Hello autumn.

Françoise Hardy - 'Message Personnel' (1973)

Smoke With Fire

The eldest daughter and I enjoyed Smoke Fairies (KCLSU, Tuesday). They sure can sing and play geetar, those gals (could maybe do with a sparkier tune now and then, but still...).

We also liked support band Bear's Den, not least because they had printed their own E.P sleeves with potatoes; not so much the overly shouty Tom Williams & The Boat.

It was a strange but lovely thing to be watching all this at the alma mater, in the hall we used for student discos and productions nearly thirty years ago - and with her ladyship, at her first proper 'gig'; by far the youngest person there (13, but don't tell), and right in front of the stage.

Life stuff eh?

She's going to see Green Day with her friends at the Emirates Stadium next summer, which'll be a bit different, I imagine.

Smoke Fairies - 'She Sells Sanctuary' (2012)

[The Cult!]

Soft Soul Sunday

Now We Are Six

A Soft Southern Jessie

Never mind your Twitters and your Spotifys and your Mixclouds, it were all fields round here six years ago.

And, with notable exceptions, your "mp3 blogs" mostly blethered on about 'indie' (younger readers, ask a grown up): I'd be chuffed if I've played even the teensiest part in helping to change that a tad.

There needed to be more reggae - and pop and soul and disco and funk and hip hop and jazz and Krautrock and country and post-punk and Eno and Sinatra and, er, Elizabethan choral music - in the blogosphere. And more foolish bar-talk and less standing around in black trying to look cool.

So here's to you, companeros, near and far: for your kindness and your comments and your.....friendship; and for the many, many splendid records you've played me in return.

My life is the better for this, and you.

So 'it it!

The Clash - 'Hitsville U.K' (1980)

Frank Wilson (5th Dec 1940 - 27th Sep 2012)

Yes, he recorded the Northern Soul classic and ultra-rare 45 'Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)' but rather unjustly was less famously the writer and producer of many hits for Motown including this glorious thing.

Full obit here.

R.I.P.

"Metal Inside Me"

« Sound of footsteps on the edge of a scream »: the most representative picture I’ve made of my life in hospital.

[These words and this picture arrived from France today by email. I have cut & paste with no edits. There are two sides to every story, and this is A's - dh]

« In July 2004 I was involved in a motor accident in Montpellier, France »....

I was a motorcyclist and the other party was a (hire) car.

At a junction, I went through a green trafic light. Not too fast, but in a rush. I wanted to arrive home after a long shooting (filming) trip. I saw a car that was waiting to cross and I thought he had seen me.

Unfortunately the car moved, the impact was inevitable.

I was badly injured. But the injuries are less important than the road to recovery.

The English driver seemed not to stop immediately, but came back after a moment. Few months later, the case went to court in France and against the doctors advices, I came in a wheelchair to hear him. But the driver did not come and was charged very lightly because, at that time, the after-effects of the accident were not assessable. I could have continue the procedure but one warned me off that it could go on many years due to the required exchanges between the two countries. I decided to drop the charges, did not want my healling process hampered by anger.

First, the doctors said that I would not keep my left leg. Then, that I would never be able to bend it… but I had only one thing on my mind : rowing again was my goal! I am practicing this sport since I am ten and it taught me a lot about tenacity.

Twenty three surgeries and two years of physiotherapy later, my first rowing attempt was not really hopeful! So, I designed a special foot stretcher, very simple. And after some time and help, the footstretcher was improved with a modern pivot and springs! 

When I realized that with training I had a chance to be selected in the French rowing adaptive team, it was obvious: I have to go to London! This will be my « peacefull » revenge! 

The dream became reality, « London Calling » echoed in my mind!

When I bought some tickets for my family and friends, something unconscious made me buy some more…

Whatever happened that tragic day, I wanted him to see what I am able to do now! These races will be my cry : « I survived and you did not stop me! »

I called a first time, no answer. A second time, no answer … I sent the tickets anyway. You know the story.

Our team result is not the one we hoped for but we realized our best races! No regrets, and great pleasure with this amazing atmosphere and organisation.

And on Sunday, just after the Final B, a « Games Maker » asked me if I was the French rower who had a car accident ? I was surprised, and he told me that he read the story in Twitter. The « unknown » driver received the tickets in time, came to Eton, saw me rowing, and wrote a touching post. 

At this moment, I knew that I did not shout into the void…

I texted him, we met. It was the hardest day of my life after our first meeting. Maybe he felt the same way. Today, I do not know where I got the strength. I was prompted by something invisible to do it … I can not explain it, it was stronger than me.

I won’t lie to you, tears come every day since our meeting. But I am so glad to know now who you are.

David, you never stopped telling me how brave I am, I want to tell you that you had a great courage to face me, be sure of that.

« My fish-eye lens view of what happened is now wide-angle; with multiple édits » 

It is true for me also. You are not the villain bearded driver of my memories anymore! You are like everyone else, like me. Our roles could be reversed. An accident can happen to anyone at any time, and it is difficult to live with it whoever you are, victim or responsable, that’s the conclusion.

After all these hardships, I understand also that victory can sometimes be elsewhere than on a podium. These games will be unforgettable and it is maybe just the most important!

Thank you David for asking me to write this ending post. I hope that it will help us to conclude this « British rowing accident » story.

Maybe our roads will cross again, but certainly not in the same way!

For sure, I have less weight on the chest, and I can now breathe in more deeply than ever for Rio…

A.

The Smiling Hour

Been on a jazz tip all week.

'S the way it goes round here, sometimes.

Breaking into cocktail hour with this swingin' mother.

Innit.

Roy Haynes - 'Dorian' (1977)

Isis

Portobello quiet on a Monday; no jingle jangle bracelet and brooch bric a brac and military hat guys under the Westway, and nothing at all north of there to Golborne, but the fruit and veg stalls of course in the other direction and the sun shining and still a fair few tourists, like the fair few leaves still green on the trees in Kensington Gardens. I did a big walk - from Ladbroke Grove up and left and right to the Gate and then down Kensington Church St to the high road and the park and all along the Serpentine to Park Lane. Heading nowhere, wearing shorts, starlings washing their feathers in a row at Round Pond while others dried by benches and the tiniest squirrel determinedly lugging the hugest still green and spiky-sealed horse chesnut home to his treetop gaff. Gold sun, and tame herons posing obligingly for tourist pictures and this lovely sculpture, new to me, joyous.

This 'freelancing' lark has its downs, but its ups, too.

And Speaking Of Grace...

Something lovely from that fab 90s new wave of black British jazz I've mentioned here before.

The Grace in this case was SW's Grandmother, if memory serves.

The vocalist is the legendary Abbey Lincoln.

I have a tape of this (TDK!) made from a public library LP, somewhere.

Steve Williamson - 'A Waltz For Grace' (1992)