01. All The Young Dudes - Mott The Hoople
02. Jumpin' Jack Flash - Rolling Stones
03. Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) - Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
04. No More Heroes - Stranglers
05. Virginia Plain - Roxy Music
06. Life On Mars? - David Bowie
07. Metal Guru - T.Rex
08. The Man With The Child In His Eyes - Kate Bush
09. Shot By Both Sides - Magazine
10. I'm Mandy Fly Me - 10cc
11. Now I'm Here - Queen
12. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall - Bryan Ferry
13. Elected - Alice Cooper
14. This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us - Sparks
15. Hong Kong Garden - Siouxsie & The Banshees
16. What Do I Get? - Buzzcocks
17. Dead Pop Stars - Altered Images
18. Senses Working Overtime - XTC
19. Delilah - Sensational Alex Harvey Band
20. Airport - Motors
21. Back Off Boogaloo - Ringo Starr
22. Anarchy In The UK - Sex Pistols
23. 10538 Overture - Electric Light Orchestra
24. Lola - Kinks
25. Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever - Beatles
26. Coz I Luv You - Slade
27. Riders On The Storm - Doors
28. Duel - Propaganda
29. Violet - Hole
30. All The Things She Said - t.A.T.u.
31. 22: The Death Of All The Romance - Dears
32. Rebellion (Lies) - Arcade Fire
33. Venus As A Boy - Björk
34. Only Happy When It Rains - Garbage
35. Whiskey In The Jar - Thin Lizzy
36. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band/Harlem Community Choir
37. Pipes Of Peace - Paul McCartney
38. Layla - Derek & The Dominos
39. In A Broken Dream - Python Lee Jackson
40. Rocket Man - Elton John
41. 99 Red Balloons - Nena
42. Stop The Cavalry - Jona Lewie
43. Ghosts - Japan
44. 5:15 - Who
45. See Emily Play - Pink Floyd
46. School Days - Runaways
47. Fireball - Deep Purple
48. Satellite Of Love - Lou Reed
49. See My Baby Jive - Wizzard
50. Blinded By The Light - Manfred Mann's Earthband
51. Judy In Disguise (With Glasses) - John Fred & His Playboy Band
52. Hocus Pocus - Focus
53. Flowers In The Rain - Move
54. Fire - Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
55. The Carnival Is Over - Seekers
56. Dreamer - Supertramp
57. Where The Wild Roses Grow - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds/Kylie Minogue
58. Let's Stay Together - Al Green
59. Naughty Miranda - Indians In Moscow
60. Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft - Carpenters
Showing posts with label The Rolling Stones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Rolling Stones. Show all posts
Saturday, 17 November 2012
Monday, 21 July 2008
Love at First Sight
It’s been highly amusing reading the press reporting of Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood’s extra-marital indiscretion. Not because I approve of him or anyone cheating on their partner but because of the sheer hypocrisy of it all. My God! Mon Dieu!! The man’s sixty-one and the girl’s only nineteen or twenty… he’s old enough to be her Grandfather… he should know better! Oh, the outrage. Every day the “Daily Mail” has gone over the same facts, and I expect it’s the same in all the tabloids… how much they’ve been drinking (and we’re not talking pots of tea here!), speculating over whether or not they’ve had sex, how Ron has painted Ekaterina Ivanova nude and, finally, how he’s fobbed her off with just nine-hundred quid on their return from Ireland to London! Lord knows how the reporters are privy to such detail. Was one of them there, actually counting out the notes for the stoned Stone? Sounds like a good few days “work”, to me, for this nubile waitress-cum-hostess! Home carers are paid just £50.55 for a thirty-five hour week!! Truth is, journalists are feeding gossip to a gullible public, both parties hungry for tittle-tattle, hacks preying on their readers’ conservatism regarding age-gap relationships. Given half the chance, they’d all be right in there with the Wood! I feel sorry for his, presumably, loyal wife, Jo. But, why is he married, in the first place, if he wants to live the footloose-and-fancy-free lifestyle?
It’s reported Ekaterina says she loves Ronnie. I wonder what she means by that? Does Ronnie love the woman he’s been married to for the past twenty-three years? And, what does he mean by love? Does Jo love Ronnie and, if she does, is she a saint? What does anyone mean when they say they love someone? Everybody has a different notion of what love is. Personally, I don’t believe in romantic love. For me, it’s a bit like religion… a crutch for the weak-minded. If you believe in God, you might just as well believe in Dracula! It all makes for terrific mythical storytelling but none of it is real. You can care about someone, care for someone, but then maybe you can care for more than one person. Most people do, in different ways. If you do believe in love, when does lust become love or vice versa? Where, exactly, is the line that you can tell one from the other? Or, is it all just instinct? By now, you’re all probably thinking, “I bet this guy’s personal relationships are terrific”!!! I’m simply stating what I see as the truth. “But, what is truth? Is truth a changing law? We both have truths. Are mine the same as yours?”, asks Pilate of Jesus, at the Messiah’s trial, in “Jesus Christ Superstar”. Tim Rice poses excellent metaphysical questions in the lyrics of this entertainment. We all, undoubtedly, have different perceptions of truth. Ronnie met a pretty young thing and took advantage. Katia met a haggard-looking but loaded rocker and, also, took advantage. Now, they have to deal with the society-imposed fallout, the consequences…
It’s reported Ekaterina says she loves Ronnie. I wonder what she means by that? Does Ronnie love the woman he’s been married to for the past twenty-three years? And, what does he mean by love? Does Jo love Ronnie and, if she does, is she a saint? What does anyone mean when they say they love someone? Everybody has a different notion of what love is. Personally, I don’t believe in romantic love. For me, it’s a bit like religion… a crutch for the weak-minded. If you believe in God, you might just as well believe in Dracula! It all makes for terrific mythical storytelling but none of it is real. You can care about someone, care for someone, but then maybe you can care for more than one person. Most people do, in different ways. If you do believe in love, when does lust become love or vice versa? Where, exactly, is the line that you can tell one from the other? Or, is it all just instinct? By now, you’re all probably thinking, “I bet this guy’s personal relationships are terrific”!!! I’m simply stating what I see as the truth. “But, what is truth? Is truth a changing law? We both have truths. Are mine the same as yours?”, asks Pilate of Jesus, at the Messiah’s trial, in “Jesus Christ Superstar”. Tim Rice poses excellent metaphysical questions in the lyrics of this entertainment. We all, undoubtedly, have different perceptions of truth. Ronnie met a pretty young thing and took advantage. Katia met a haggard-looking but loaded rocker and, also, took advantage. Now, they have to deal with the society-imposed fallout, the consequences…
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…
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…
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