Just One Victory

I don't tweet very often (my twitter name is @mikeydred96) though I've just looked and apparently it also reports all the Youtube Videos I like, but I decided to tweet today with this:

"Booking with #RyanAir is like betting with #Ladbrokes . You give them your money and 99% you never get anything back"

 This may be my last September 2017 post, and I have been listening to a lot of good music , which I will post about but yesterday walking to work I decided to revisit Todd Rundgren's "A Wizard, A True Star" (not as though his confidence wasn't as high as a kite when he titled that) . This album really needs pairing with the follow up "Todd" which I listened to and wrote about here.

This is another box of  of delights ranging from blue eyed soul to heavy metal with a Judy Garland cover from "The Wizard of Oz" thrown, into the mix. The cover gives an indication of what to expect, there is a lot for you ears to delight in . Originating on vinyl it is very much two sides of Todd Rundgren.

A Studio Magician

Side one is bookended by the gorgeous elctrified rock of  "International Feel" before directy running into a solo piano take on "Never Never Land", running through about twelve pieces from the throwaway "Dogfight Giggle" to the metal of  "When The Shit Hits The Fan" hetting a number of genres with , of course , no track breaks.

Side two is more blue eyed soul and not quite as manic as side one, but the gorgeous soul medley, shows his wonderful arrangement and musicianship a backing vocals anlthough his lead vocals not quite up to everything else but still worth the price of admission alone. Although more sedate this side still has a metal punch in "Is It My Name" before the big hopeful  finale of "Just One Victory" to play out with.

It's Friday so I will leave you with "Just One Victory" and I would suggest that if you don't have a copy of this album, get hold of it now , with a copy of "Todd". You will not regret it.

Have a brilliant day everybody.

Fog In Fenham and South African Fun

Looking out the window and it's dark and foggy. This is definitely not a summers day, though the light is breaking. I need to go to the post office depot because, as usual, they tried to deliver a parcel in the middle of the day. Whatever happened to early morning deliveries? Oh yes they cut staff and rationalised their operation now it's been privatised to ensure maximum profit for the government shareholders. But there is a chance I may get some good video walking across the park , but we shall see.

Yestersay's walking #AlbumoftheDay was Malcolm McLaren's "Duck Rock". Malcolm was a musical magpie, getting other people to implement his often hairbrained ideas and more than often turning out albums that are at least 75% brilliant, and that is no mean feat. "Duck Rock" is mainluy based on Aftrican Jit, but there is some Salsa thown in with hip hop links wy the "World Famous Supreme Team". The song "Buffalo Girls" was a hit but listening to it now, I can't really see why, it sounds fragmented and awkward , that falls into the album's 25%.

The album opens with  the beautiful "Obatala" before "Buffalo Girls" hits then we hit the uplifting "Double Dutch". There are lots of gems to discover, and while I don't like the use of the word "punk" in anything (especially Bredog Beer, and other mainstream commercialisation"), this is a wonderful piece of Mclarenesque Jit which I will share with you.

Have a brilliant Tuesday my friends.

Electric Fireships

This morning I discovered that boiling a kettles costs me 2p according to my OVO Smart Meter, I've had powere meters before and on the odd occasion they have actually saved me money, one of them alerted me to the fact that we had one incandescent bulb left in the house that I hadn't replaced, and that incandescent bulb increased the house power consumption by 25% . At the time we had two five bulb chandeliers , fridge , TV, heating two computers and god knows what else running and one incandescent bulb (which is basically a heater that gives off light)  caused that increase. The kettle , well you need to boil a kettle so there's not much to be done there.

Yesterday I was listening to "Fireships" by Peter Hammill and while the album is hardly essential listening for most people it doesw contain so beautiful but disturbing songs about control such as "His Best Girl",  and "Incomplete Surrender" and problem the most beautifully frightening stalker song since The Police's "Every Breath You Take", "I Will Find You", which is the one I will share with you this morning.

"A fire ship or fireship, used in the days of wooden rowed or sailing ships, was a ship filled with combustibles, deliberately set on fire and steered (or, where possible, allowed to drift) into an enemy fleet, in order to destroy ships"

That's taken from the Wikipedia entry, which you can read here. Anyway Monday morning is with us once more so time to hit the week and go out and do your stuff. Have a brilliant day everybody.

200 @ 2:00 AM

This is my 200th post this year and it's 2:00 AM although really I should have gone back to bed, though the fact that this is my second most prolific year so far and th efact that I've not really done anything in the middle of the night for a while made me think "Why Not?". It's two in the morning and this time next week it will be 2 AM in La Rosa in Whitby so I thought I would just get up and write a word or two.

My last two posts have been about two albums that I'd revisited for #Albumofthe Day and other things meant that I missed two albums that I'd been listening to, so I thought I would say a couple of words about both the ones that I'd missed and bring myself up to date on them. The response I got to David Bowie's "Blackstar" was very good, although it's amazing what a picture of David Bowie on your post can do for attracting a few more readers, but that is really the point of writing these these things , to remind me and my readers about great music that we may have forgotten about or just not heard.

The two albums I mised were:

• Graham Parker & The Rumour: The Up Escalator - One of my favourite albums of his and his final one with The Rumour. Produced with Jimmy Iovine and featuring Bruce Springsteen as co writer and on backing vocals on "Endless Night"  this is just brilliant song after brilliant song from the opening riff of "No Holding Back" not dropping off through "Devil's Sidewalk" and "Stupefaction" until the final song of the original album "Love Without Greed". Another one that should really be in your collection.
• Spirit: The Twelve Dreams of Doctor Sardonicus - A bona fide rock classic absolutely full of songs which you don't realise that you actually know very well. From the enigmatic cover and running order with titles like "Prelude", "Space Child" and "Street Worm" and if you have heard "Animal Zoo" or "Mr Skin" you will recognise them instantly or if not you will be captivated when you do hear them.

Anyway, given that I have two albums full of great songs to choose from, it is a difficult choice but you can either follow the links and listen to samples on Amazon or just find them on Youtube. I'm going to go for "No Holding Back" from "The Up Escalator" , then I am going back to bed.

Have a great Sunday everyone.

Oddly Enough .... Todd

Going back to the seventies again for my walking listening, though for the first time I think that Pacer may not be performing as it should,  though it's logged 7K today leaving me to do 65K between now and next Saturday night.

Anyway after the revelation of "Freak Out" and Mark talking seventies music I thought I'd take a ride on Todd Rundgren's "Todd" album, a double vinyl release that I first bought on cassette from Laskey's in Preston Guidhall. I got the album home and the cassette player chewed it so I took it back and exchanged it for the double vinyl edition. Here's the Wiki entry, with links to other albums mentioned.

To most of you Todd Rundgren will mean nothing, if you have heard anything it may be "I Saw The Light" , but you will have heard his work , he was a very in demand producer and was responsible for the sound and some of the paying on Meatloaf's "Bat Out Of Hell" which you will know and maybe even have a copy of.

Anyway Todd was a double album and came in about 64 minutes , the album after, "Initiation"  was a single album and clocked in at 69 minutes , at the time the longest rock album ever put out. It came with instructions to always play with a brand new needle to avoid unnecessary damage to the grooves. That could have got very expensive and people tended to go for the cassette version.

At that time (1974) me and schoolfriends were usually wary of anything outside normal rock paramters, though those parameters were all over the place (I was a fan of The Bonzo Dog Band and T Rex and Northern Soul) , we were also into Krautrock and Space Rock and anything "out there". Soul was frowned upon, although Stevie Wonder, Parliament , Funkadelic, Gloria Jones,The Supremes and James Brown were OK.

Anyway Todd Rundgren came onto our radar and I got the album home and listened to it, four sides that seemed to cover every acceptable base , then a few more also making them acceptable.

The opening "How About A Little Fanfare" is really a continuation from the wonderful "A Wizard/ A True Star" album. The thing is as you listen to this album it has everything and takes you off to places you don't expect to go, "Spark of Life" is almost Krautrock and definitely Space Rock, then we have Gilbert & Sullivan "Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song" from "Iolanthe", along with some pure soul such as "The Last Ride".

Todd in Names

 "No. 1 Lowest Common Denominator" which is what Hendrix's "If 6 Was 9" would be in an alternate universe. There are a lot of songs to enjoy and when the tape shredding transposition from "Izzat Love" to "Heavy Metal Kids" hits tape owners must have thought that's another one gone.

The album finishes with "Sons of 1984" a live song featuring "First United Church of the Cosmic Smorgasbord" which was the audiences from two live outdoor gigs in Central Parlk And San Francisco making it possibly the biggest number of backing vocals on a song ever (I don't know if that's still true). I think that their names were recorded on a poster included with the vinyl album which replicated the cover using the names.





All in all another essential album, that I have just revisited and been amazed by because it just reminded me of how good it was itn the first place. If you buty it on CD you get some extra live songs including a cover of possibly Jeff Lynne and The Move's finest three minutes "Do Ya" .

Listening to   "No. 1 Lowest Common Denominator" has reminded me that I need to load some Hendrix onto the phone for some more listening, although I am willing to take any suggestions from you.

I've had a good day today, hope you enjoy your evening

Much of The Time We Are All The Same

Yesterday walking through the Eldon I guty was cluctching a load of shopping,, probably to much to immediately handle and almost malked into me as he struggled keep hold of everything, and profusely apologised saying "Sorry" several times. The number of times I see people concentrating on their phones or devices or something else and ending up walking into other people, lamp posts, glass doors, road signs. I am as guilty as anybody else. My nearest I come to multi tasking is answering the phone when I'm walking. If I want to take video and post on instagram or wherever I alaways make sure I stop otherwise I would be walking into tree or traffic and ending up as strawberry jam. I listen to music as I walk and I've had the odd #twiker (thats a tw@ biker) shout at me to get out of the way as I block THEIR FOOTPATH, but I do make an effort to remain in control and be aware , though as you know I get easiliy distracted.

Yesterday I was chatting with Mark my son-in-law who is working through seventies music, mentioning The Doors and Supertramp's "Crime of the Century" which is has been playing on his valve based amp which gives a warmer sound than solid state.

I said during the day I had been listening to The Mothers of Invention's "Freak Out" which was was late sixties rather than seventies but contemporary to The Doors. While I listened to Zappa and The Mothers (the record company insisted on the "Of Invention" as they decided that the public would think it implied a certain denigratory family connection) at school I'd read that The Bonzo Dog Band  were the English equivalent of The Mothers, which I didn't see as I saw The Mothers as complex rock against The Bonzo's comedy jazz (which was anything but simple).

Listening to "Freak Out" the analogy becomes clear, the two bands are very similar , the main difference is that The Mothers are rooted in American Doo Wop and Rock and Rock Roll, whereas the Bonzo's were rooted in traditional jazz and music hall. Both bands were intelligent and sophisticaticated enough to cross and incorporate genres. Some of the songs sound like the nuagty kids who escaped from The Brill Building or Tin Pan Alley , Pure Americam Pop until you listen to the lyrics and realised that complex motif being played is actually a kazoo. Just listening to "Any Way The Wind Blows" which is actually pure pop with a vaguely sinister descending guitar line, but the album wouldn't drive people out of your house put addresses a lot of issues still relevant today "Who Are The Brain Police?", "It Can't Happen Here" and "Hungry Freaks Daddy".

Anyway I'll leave you with the opening song from the album.

It's a beautiful day, and if you are in Newcastle you can go and see the dinosaurs in "Jurassic Kingdom" in Leazes Park. Here's my Instagram video.

Have a brilliant weekend.

Acting Like Magpies

While out for tea last night at Bar Loco I was talking with Juliet and Kirsty about stuff such as technology , and kirsty said that people spent money on new technology these days because often people don't have kids and therefore they have more disposable income and that disposable incime often goes on new tech such as the latest phones, TVs or Blu-Ray boxed set.

Because my daughters are independent I also fall into that category, but I remeber many years ago getting into the stage of buying DVDs because they were so cheap (and I thought I might watch them) , and I saw a Hugh Grant DVD , I think it was "Words and Music" in HMV for £1.99, I picked it up and thought , "But where would I put it?" , the shelves were full. I don't often buy DVDs these days being so lazy that I can't be bothered to get up , find the DVD, put it in the player etec etc, when I have digital content at the touch of a few buttons.

I do the same with CDs though it's slightly different, I will buy CDs at a gig to support bands who actually put the effort in to to turn up and perform. In recent years I saw The Jackhammers as part of a three band line up for £2 at  The Central. There were twenty people there, they were the headliners from Glasgow, so the take was £40 , so I bought some CDs thinking how do these bands do this.

I also buy from local record shops such as Reflex and RPM because if you don't then one day you won't be able to buy anything except the latest Now and X-Factor compilations from Tesco. Sometimes Andy and Marek's recommendations hit the nail , sometimes they don't , but I love walking into the sops hearing something and wondering what it is , and often end up buying the record.

Anyway to get to the point of this post, my #AlbumoftheDay yesterday was David Bowie's "Blackstar". I bought it when it came out but didn't know it inside out and though it was time to revisit. One song on the album is "Sue (Or In A Season of Crime)" jazz based and reminds me a little of The Bonzo Dog Band's "Big Shot" in feel (and without the comedy, though Bowie does have a sense of humour), and that slots seamlessly into the middle of the album. The album is around forty minutes, ideal for vinyl and opens with the eponymous title track which consists of two interwining pieces one brooding two chord atmospheric and the other almost pop stretching out for almost ten minutes. The other standout for me is "Lazarus" which is Bowie's obvious last song, he knew what was coming. The rest of the album could be considered Bowie filler but still high quality , but the two standouts alone make this an essential purchas and essential listening.

The thing is with downloads, you can acquire stuff legally (or illegally) and let it just sit on a hard disc , unwatched or unlistened to, and a lot of people do that, the point being tou have the said item , you don't experience it.

Anyway I am still thinking "Blackstar" but have been listening to more stuff which I will be writing about in the next few days. I leave you with the amazing video for such an amazing song, and yes it does last ten minutes.

It's Friday, the weekend is nearly hear , so go out enjoy yourslef and have a great day.