At Home in Hespeler

You have a music fan on your Christmas list, 60’s and 70’s rock mostly, and you’re looking for a book. Perhaps another crappy Brian Jones biography is what he needs. Or not. In reality, the only book you want to get your music lover this Christmas is Glyn Johns’ great autobiography, Sound Man: A Life Recording Hits with The Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Eric Clapton, The Faces . . .. I myself have purchased copies for two music fans on my list.

Johns’ started out as an Engineer in the very early days of rock and roll, engineering the earliest Stones and Who singles in London’s IBC studio, “which was without a doubt the finest independent recording studio in Europe at that time.” He got his first job at IBC out of school, strictly because his sister knew someone who worked there and he loved music. He started as a man Friday, setting up microphones, running cable and brewing tea. His first engineering job came as a result of a weekend session in 1964 by Georgie Fame, “Rhythm and Blues at the Flamingo,” and nobody else wanting to do it. It’s success, and his age, meant that he was well placed for the rock and roll revolution that was just about to sweep London.

Sound Man isn’t a great book, though, just because Johns’ is the Forrest Gump of the British Invasion: he first heard Jimmy Page at a boys club talent show when they were both about 12, saw Jeff Beck in the Tridents, his pre-Yardbirds band, and lived with original Rolling Stone Ian Stewart (in fact, he and Stewart’s rented house was a gathering point for the very early Stones). Sound Man is also a book that sticks to the music. There is no chapter, no story in Sound Man that is not directly related to Johns’ career in music. There’s no grandpa Gus took me across the river for fish and chips stories here. Childhood stories are either of the church choir, a budding singing career or summers on a uncles farm, the uncle of whom was a guitar player and American folk music fan.

Similarly, Johns, who claims to have never done any drugs, never smoked a joint, keeps the stories of the musicians he worked with to musical ones. If he has various tales of debauchery, he keeps them to himself. But what a list of musicians he did work with:

The Kinks (All Day and All of the Night/I Gotta Move, and You Really Got Me/It’s All Right)
The Rolling Stones ( from 1965’s December’s Children (And Everybody’s) to 1975’s Black and Blue)
The Pretty Things
Davy Jones
The Small Faces and The Faces
Led Zeppelin (the first album)
Manfred Mann
Marianne Faithfull
Spooky Tooth
Procol Harum
The Steve Miller Band
The Beatles
Joe Cocker
Humble Pie
The Eagles
The Who

That’s the partial list.

When I had to choose a Christmas present for music fans on my list, I chose Sound Man by Glyn Johns. It’s the best music book I’ve read in a long time.

Uncategorized Eagles, Faces, Glyn Johns, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Sound Man, The Who

Being an atheist, I don’t believe in concepts such as heaven and hell. But if I’m wrong and these places do exist, I trust Satan has a special place for people who use the phrase “postnatal abortion.”

Uncategorized

Here’s a question. Why has Mark Steyn never recorded Baby, It’s Cold Outside?* In two Christmas themed albums with Jessica Martin, Steyn has covered everything from Sweet Gingerbread Man, to It’s a Marshmallow World, from Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas to Santa Clause is Coming to Town and Jingle Bells. Now with his latest CD, Goldfinger, Steyn adds Can’t Take My Eyes off You, the Very Thought of You and, implausibly, a slow jazz standard of Cat Scratch Fever (he think’s he’s got it some more, yea).

And can it be a coincidence that this CD shows up in my mailbox the same day they announce the latest Bond movie, Spectre?** His rendition of Goldfinger leads to an obvious choice to do the theme song for Spectre, and it’s not to let Madonna ruin another Bond intro. No, never mind the Mark Steyn for Senate petition that was floating around a year or so back, it’s time for a Mark Steyn for the Bond theme song movement.***

But still, Goldfinger, the seven-song CD, comes in at around 30-minutes so it seems like you could shoehorn one more in. And Jessica Martin, his favourite female foil, makes an appearance anyway, so why not drop Baby, It’s Cold Outside on to the CD? It is, after all, according to Steyn himself, the root of all Jihad. This from Lights Out: Islam, Free Speech And The Twilight Of The West, one of Steyn’s must own books:

What was so awful about Sayyid Qutb’s experience in America that led him to regard modernity as an abomination? Well, he went to a dance in Greeley, Colorado:

The room convulsed with the feverish music from the gramophone. Dancing naked legs filled the hall, arms draped around the waists, chests met chests, lips met lips…

In 1949, Greeley, Colorado was dry. The dance was a church social. The feverish music was Frank Loesser’s charm song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”… It’s a useful reminder how much we could give up and still be found decadent and disgusting by the Islamists. A world without “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” will be very cold indeed.

Wow, just think how bad the war on terror would be going if Sayyid Qutb had heard Cat Scratch Fever Mark Steyn style. So the jihadists would hate Baby, It’s Cold Outside and Steyn could add his name to what is probably the only list in the world to include Rod Stewart, Buddy the Elf and Hot Lips Page.

Fortunately we have Goldfinger to enjoy, which has plenty of it’s own abomination’s of modernity.

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Update: Dec 15

Hello to readers of Mark Steyn, who has linked here for the second time. Glad to have you stop by. A couple of notes that Steyn himself has raised.

* Last week, Mr. Steyn noted he had answered that question in his song of the week: “I gave a kind of an answer a week ago, but evidently Mr Gardiner is not satisfied.” Actually, it was not a matter of satisfied or no, it was a matter of I hadn’t read that particular article yet.

** Originally I referred to the title of the movie as Smersh. Steyn is, of course, correct, the movie is “Spectre”, not Smersh. At the time of writing the post, I was reading Ian Fleming’s From Russia With Love, in which SMERSH is heavily involved in a plot to kill James Bond. Apparently I had SMERSH on the mind. It is now corrected in the text, but noted here.

*** Let the record state, I agree with Mark Steyn (and Don Black) “that Shirley Bassey should sing them all”. However, far too often it is not Shirley Bassey, but Madonna or Duran Duran who does the theme, and a poor job they make of it too. I am merely submitting Steyn to get the gig in lieu of Ms. Bassey should she be unavailable.

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Track List

1. Cat Scratch Fever
2. On a Slow Boat to China
3. Can’t Take My Eyes Off You
4. De Quoi A-T-Elle L’Air Ce Soir
5. Roses of Picardy
6. Goldfinger
7. The Very Thought Of You

Mark Steyn Baby its cold outside, cat scratch fever, Goldfinger, James Bond, Mark Steyn, Spectre

Yes has always been a bit of a favourite band of mine. Not a front line, must see, must have every record band like Led Zeppelin or The Who or the Stones. Oh sure, they changed the lineup too often to be one of the greats. New keyboard players and singers especially dotted the Yes-scape, although there was that abomination 80’s lineup that featured no Steve Howe.

I approached the new live Yes CD, Like It Is – YES At The Bristol Hippodrome, due out December 9th, with some trepidation. Seeing as it featured only three classic line up members, drummer Alan White, bassist Chris Squire and the aforementioned Steve Howe. The lineup is filled out with 80’s era keyboardist Geoff Downes and new singer Jon Davison who sounds scarily like original Yes singer Jon Anderson.

Working a setlist of classic Yes, Like It Is is a great collection of songs played to perfection. The energy is high, no 40-year band going through the motions here. Starting with a surprisingly rockin’ version of Going for the One, the set runs through such greats as Yours is no Disgrace, Steve Howe’s The Clap, Starship Trooper and I’ve Seen All Good People, before finishing up on Perpetual Change.

It’s not perfect, not by a long shot. Released in CD/DVD combo and digital formats, Yes at the Bristol Hippodrome is badly missing a vinyl release, an almost fatal flaw. If one can’t put the LP under the Christmas tree, then what’s the point of going to the trouble of cutting down a tree and propping it up in your living room? But besides format complaints, Like It Is – YES At The Bristol Hippodrome is one of the most enjoyable albums I’ve come across this Christmas release season.

Tracklist

1. Going for the One
2. Turn of the Century
3. Parallels
4. Wonderous Stories
5. Awaken
6. Yours is no Disgrace
7. Clap
8. Starship Trooper
9. I’ve Seen All Good People
10. A Venture
11. Perpetual Change

Album release, Record Release, Review Bristol, Live at the Bristol Hippodrome, Steve Howe, Yes

How big was Bing Crosby? In the 40’s and 50’s he was the number one radio, movie and recording star. Fifty-million people turned into his radio show every week. He performed duets or performed with, among many, many others, Bob Hope, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and David Bowie.

His style of singing is not so popular these days, to our loss. But he changed the way people sang. With the invention of the microphone, you no longer needed to belt, and Bing caressed the microphone, singing in a folksy, homespun style. He influenced everybody who came after him.

During World War II, he came home from touring Europe interested in tape recording. In 1947, he invested in Ampex recorders. He wanted to pre-record his radio shows. However, NBC balked, and he refused to work. The ensuing court case found his contract to be essentially “indentured servitude.” Crosby took his magnetic tape device to ABC and changed how radio was done. Later, he gave one of his Ampex recorders to his pal Les Paul, who would develop multi-tracking using it.

Crosby was so big, to answer the question, that he fundamentally changed everything he touched: movies, radio and recording.

All this and more is covered in exquisite detail in PBS’ American Master Series show, Bing Crosby – Rediscovered. The show covers Crosby’s career in about as much detail as you can cover such a diverse, lengthy career in 90 minutes. It features clips ranging from Bing in Mac Sennet movies to Johnny Carson.

Narrated by Stanley Tucci, and featuring interviews with all surviving members of Crosby’s immediate family, wife Kathryn, daughter Mary and sons Harry and Nathaniel, Crosby’s estate granted American Masters access to his archives, including never-before-seen home movies, Dictabelt recordings, photos and more.

American Masters: Bing Crosby – Rediscovered airs on PBS beginning tomorrow, and can also be ordered on DVD. American Masters: Bing Crosby Rediscovered – The Soundtrack features songs heard in the documentary, including 16 previously unreleased recordings.

Uncategorized American Masters, Bing Crosby, PBS