Visit the official Doctor Who website

Visit the official Doctor Who website
Look to the future

Asylum seekers...

Asylum seekers...
Refuge of the Daleks

Doctor Who picture resource

Doctor Who picture resource
Roam the space lanes!

Explore the Doctor Who classic series website

Explore the Doctor Who classic series website
Step back in time

Infiltrate The Hub of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood

Infiltrate The Hub of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood
Armed and extremely dangerous

Investigate The Sarah Jane Adventures

Investigate The Sarah Jane Adventures
Fearless in the face of adversity

Call on Dani’s House

Call on Dani’s House
Harmer’s a charmer

Intercept the UFO fabsite

Intercept the UFO fabsite
Defending the Earth against alien invaders!

Uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse

Uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse
Programmable agent Echo exposed!

Hell’s belles

Hell’s belles
Naughty but nice

Love Exposure

Love Exposure
Flash photography!

Primeval portal

Primeval portal
Dressed to kill or damsels in distress?

Charmed, to be sure!

Charmed, to be sure!
The witches of San Francisco

Take on t.A.T.u.

Take on t.A.T.u.
All the way from Moscow

Proceed to the Luther website

Proceed to the Luther website
John and Jenny discuss their next move

DCI Banks is on the case

DCI Banks is on the case
You can bet on it!

On The Grid with Spooks

On The Grid with Spooks
Secret agents of Section D

Bridge to Hustle

Bridge to Hustle
Shady characters

Life on Ashes To Ashes

Life on Ashes To Ashes
Coppers with a chequered past

Claire’s no Exile

Claire’s no Exile
Goose steps

Vexed is back on the beat!

Vexed is back on the beat!
Mismatched DI Armstrong and bright fast-tracker Georgina Dixon

Medium, both super and natural

Medium, both super and natural
Open the door to your dreams

Who’s that girl? (350-picture Slideshow)

Friday 6 June 2008

Top of My Pops: Five Favourite Albums


I’ve been tagged by Simon, of the “Old Cheeser” variety, to come up with a list of my all-time favourite popular music albums. Being too good an opportunity to waste, I’ve decided to extend the idea to future posts as I feel it’s more worthwhile to dwell a little on each of my choices, and why I like what I do, rather than just state what rocks my boat! In forthcoming “Top of My Pops” features, as well as albums, I’ll also be covering singles and individual songs/tracks. So, without further ado, and in no particular order of preference, here are five of my favourite albums…

1. Country Life by Roxy Music (1974)

The fourth studio album by Roxy Music, “Country Life”, consolidated the achievements of the previous two records without really breaking any new ground but I’ve always felt it to be a substantial collection nonetheless. “Bitter-Sweet”, for example, is a direct descendant of “A Song for Europe” from third album “Stranded” while my favourite track, “Prairie Rose”, a song expressing Ferry’s love at that time for “Siren” model Jerry Hall, builds on musical ideas established in “Editions of You”, a number from the second album “For Your Pleasure”. DJ Alan Freeman believed “Stranded” to be the classic Roxy Music album while many fans opt for its predecessor. I, however, have a soft spot for the sequel to the classic. “Country Life” includes the single “All I Want is You” as well as the energetically vibrant “The Thrill of It All” and the excellent bass-pounding “Out of the Blue”.

2. Aladdin Sane by David Bowie (1973)

While many fans opt for David Bowie’s breakthrough album, “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”, I prefer its successor, “Aladdin Sane”, despite the fact that “Ziggy” includes the better single in “Starman”. “The Jean Genie” is my least favourite track on “Aladdin Sane”. Much better is the follow-up, “Drive-In Saturday”, originally offered to Mott the Hoople, to cement the success of “All the Young Dudes”, but rejected in favour of building on initial success, from the Bowie composition, with material of their own creation. For years, my favourite track on “Aladdin Sane” was rock-driven “Cracked Actor” but, on recent re-evaluation, I currently rate the title track above all others in the collection. The reason for this is pianist Mike Garson. He takes conventional pop songs, bends and steers them towards jazz-tinged avant-garde, and produces something unique.

3. The Best Years of Our Lives by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel (1975)

“The Best Years of Our Lives” was Cockney Rebel’s third album but the first with the new line-up that included classically-trained keyboard player Duncan MacKay, who would later work on number one recordings by Kate Bush and 10cc, and guitarist Jim Cregan, future collaborator with Rod Stewart and Katie Melua. This Steve Harley recording spawned the massively successful chart-topping single “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)”, later used to good effect in Brit-flick “The Full Monty”. The follow-up, “Mr. Raffles (Man It was Mean)”, while nowhere near as popular, influenced one of my early songs, “Yvonne (You Turn Me On)”, both musically and lyrically in that I essentially rewrote Steve’s song in the minor while the “Yvonne” of the title was a reference to Harley’s backing vocalist and girlfriend of the time, Yvonne Keeley! My favourite track on “Best Years”, and also my favourite Harley song, is the marvellously nutty “Back to the Farm”.

4. Magical Mystery Tour by The Beatles (1967)

The Beatles’ album “Magical Mystery Tour” probably isn’t as highly regarded as its groundbreaking immediate-predecessor, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, due to the nature of its original release in the UK. What eventually became Side One of the LP, nine years after the six songs’ initial release as a double EP, were the tracks actually used in the film of the same name. Side Two was comprised of five A and B-sides released in the same year. But, what a collection! On the first side, arguably the best compositions by both John Lennon, in the anarchic “I am the Walrus”, and Paul McCartney, with the haunting “The Fool on the Hill”, while, on the second, possibly the finest double A-sided single in the history of popular music, namely “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane”. As if that wasn’t enough, to top it all, the whole album is rounded off with the anthemic “All You Need is Love”.

5. Forty Licks by The Rolling Stones (2002)

I’m not overly keen on compilation albums but The Rolling Stones’ “Forty Licks” is such good value it’s very hard to resist! It actually packs a whopping 235MB while the quality of the music, throughout the entire two-disc set, is every bit as fulfilling as the quantity. The record does what it says on the sleeve, and includes forty songs spanning a forty-year recording career. Most of my favourite Stones’ tracks are present including “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Brown Sugar”. David Bowie covered “Let’s Spend the Night Together”, at breakneck speed, on “Aladdin Sane” and, on “Forty Licks”, the original version closes the first disc. My one gripe about the collection is that it doesn’t include “We Love You”. This, piano-led, rocker of a tune can be found on the more recent “Rolled Gold Plus”. In the words of The Strolling Bones’ front man, Michael Philip Jagger himself, “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It)”!

Another selection to follow, at a later date…

6 comments:

Steve said...

For some reason I'm surprised to see you're a Stones fan! Roxy Music was never going to be a surprise. I must admit I have a soft spot for Cockney Rebel but have actually listened to very little of their stuff - didn't they release Here Comes The Sun as well?

TimeWarden said...

I've always rated "Jumpin' Jack Flash" as one of the best singles ever. The video of Jagger in war paint probably kick-started my rebellious streak!

Cockney Rebel did release a cover of George Harrison's "Here Comes the Sun". It's on their "Love's a Prima Donna" album.

Old Cheeser said...

Tim - so sorry but I haven't had the chance to comment on your choices - been busy (for a change). Will be back soon to comment!!

TimeWarden said...

No worries… look forward to reading what you have to say.

Old Cheeser said...

Well I'm back at last! Have been rather busy of late, hence the slow response...

You I think are definitely a guitar-group kind of man, Tim! But there's also a glam rock/punky vein running through the stuff you list.

(Good idea to run the idea onto future posts by the way...that way you can wax lyrical in more detail later on...unlike me who does it all in one go!)

When I first opened your post I was at work and the erm, revealing shot of the ladies popped up! Oh dear!! Should that be "C*ntry Life" then? (Whoops!) Mr Ferry did like his attractive ladies didn't he, Jerry Hall and all those model types, and the cover is a prime example!

I've never heard this particular album although I do like some of Roxy's tracks. If pushed I'm probably more into the Roxy of the "Avalon" period and also some of Bryan F's subsequent albums. I've still got vinyl copies of "Boys and Girls" and "Bete Noire" somewhere...

Again with Bowie I don't know the early stuff so well apart from the singles but I do know that "Aladdin Sane" is considered one of his classics!! Have you ever heard Bowie's soundtrack to "The Buddha of Suburbia", Tim?

And Cockey Rebel - again I profess ignorance where they are concerned! Apart from the obvious "Come up and see me" single and the fact Mr Harley once dueted with Sarah Brightman!

I don't have a single Beatles album but I do actually think that they are one of the best pop bands (if I can call them that) ever. The songs you list are classics. "Eleanor Rigby" and "Lady Madonna" are probably two of my favourites.

The Stones! Not a major fan but I can see the appeal. Did you know, my Dad went to the same school as Mick Jagger? Apparently he was a bit of a pain in the a*se and he and some school chums locked a teacher in a cupboard, causing him to have a breakdown? My Dad is also a Stones fan and went to see them play in Amsterdam not so long ago...they're still going strong, it seems.

Well thanks for responding to my tag Tim and look forward to seeing the next entries on your list!

Hugs from the OC.

TimeWarden said...

I like guitar bands, true, but prefer it when the sound is augmented with keyboards, strings and the like.

You can always return to the subject too, Simon. There's just so much music out there. You might be surprised by the variety in my collection, some has no guitars at all!

Bryan even married one of the models, from one of the later sleeves. The records you mention are good, if a little over-produced in comparison with the earlier stuff.

I have "The Buddha of Suburbia" sitting on my hard drive! LOL!! I watched the series when it was on BBC Two. I've got about thirty David Bowie albums altogether including "Labyrinth", another of his soundtracks.

Steve Harley's duet with Sarah Brightman isn't typical of his output. It surprised me when "Phantom" was released and, later, came in for criticism when compared to Michael Crawford's version.

The Beatles songs you mention are good too, again benefiting from the addition of strings courtesy of George Martin.

My brother went to school with a lad who later toured with The Rolling Stones as their session keyboard player. His name is Matt Clifford and his sister, Clare, was in "Earthshock" and a second series episode of "Torchwood"!

Many thanks for the invitation to take part in your tag, Simon, I enjoyed it.