Copendium HardRockSampler

Into the last hundred pages of "Copendium" the 700-page treatise on music by Julian Cope, and the album reviews finished in 2010 and so far have caused me to buy three of them. Now it is a few chapters of samplers with singles from various genres the second being twenty three tracks from HardRockSampler featuring Mott The Hoople, David Bowie, Budgie, Kiss, Love and a few other familiar (to me) names. It also includes one of my favourite Thin Lizzy song, and possibly one of the greatest ever chord riffs, "The Rocker".

Since the blog became about the books I am reading, this has been the most commented book and no doubt it will be finished this month.

Cope's writing at times goes absolutely but entertainingly mad by describing one band by roping in three, four or five others. 

"It's Donovan being Nick Drake singing 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' down a storm drain, as recorded as an out-take from the more outré moments on Nico's Chelsea Girls. Got me?" 

The book is printed on very thick paper so it is a fairly hefty tome.

I recently discovered that my American Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here. It only shows on the .com site but not on others. C'est La Vie.

The music is The Rocker by Thin Lizzy

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. Barter Books - An Amazing Bookshop In A Railway Station In Alnwick
2. The Plagiaristic Poetry Series - Poems Taken From Random-Themed Lines
3. Another Raven - A Take On Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"
4. The Cleaner - An Autism-Focused Christmas Special
5. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
6. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
7. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
8. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer and this is her Instagram

 

The Titles of Budgie

I was originally going to title this "Nude Disintegrating Parachutist Woman" which is one of the many startling titles from the Welsh Heavy Metallers Budgie. Other titles are "It The Grip of A Tyre Fitters Hand" and "Breadfan" the latter covered by Metallica here among other places.

Their titles also vaguely remind me of the titles that Amon Duul II had on their albums which only just about made sense.

This morning I awoke from a dream it which lots happened but most has melted away now although one thing I remember was going back to the office except walking in was more like a packed church, withe everyone at their desks , then I realised I had forgotten my laptop so had to go back home , but it was pointless going back to the office because there was no place to sit anyway.

My mind is empty tonight (as usual) so I will leave you to enjoy the Welsh metal.

Breadfan

September this year seems a bit weird for me. I feel there's a least a week left in September but it ends on Monday meaning that Tuesday we're into October and incidentally my birthday. Thought the week after it's my daughter's birthday and I always think I have more time to sort her card and present out and often end up consulting her Amazon wishlist the day before. I will do that this weekend.

The other day I went to the Strawberry and was thinking while I like their toasties I'm not really that much of a bread fan these days. Really if you are trying to keep the weight off bread is best avoided. That reminded of the seventies Welsh Metal band Budgie who had a song called "Breadfan" (covered by, among others , Metallica who do a more than decent cover) and thought that would be a good title / subject for a post. Some more of their excellent titles include "In The Grip of A Tire Fitters Hand", "Nude Disintegrating Parachutist Woman" and "Crash Course In Brain Surgery" (Budgie not Metallica).

Still on "The God Delusion" and it is teaching me a lot about Cosmology and Physics and I'm finding it more scientifically instructional than anti God / Religion although Dawkins has no time for ignorance and using God as an explanation for things we don't yet have an answer for.

So it's Friday morning , time for work, and I'll leave you with "Breadfan" by Budgie with excellent static Roger Dean cover.

Big In Japan

The weather has been awful for walking, wind , rainy and cold meaning that an umbrella is not really a viable option. While April Fool's Day was fine, Monday and Tuesday were really not good, last night I ended up in bed at eight thirty and went straight to sleep.

However in my walking I have been listening to a hardly pristine bootleg called "Caged En Italia" by Big In Japan the Liverpool supergroup reading like a who's who of musical subversity including Bill Drummond, Budgie , Holly Johnson and lots more. My favourite song is from a John Peel session in 1979 called "Don't Bomb China Now" but I love the instrumental "Match of the Day" and it's vocal genesis "Space Walk" though a lot of this stuff is difficult to track down and sounds like a forth generation cassette recording, but I personally find it very enjoyable.

There is some of their stuff available digitally on various Liverpool based compilations and they are worth tracking down.

One of the problems is when you search you get handed teh songs by Alphaville and Guano Apes, that is not what you are looking for.

I've found the full Peel session for you to get some idea of what they were about.

Stay dry and enjoy.