Incredible String Band: First Girl I Loved
No one else sounds quite like the Incredibles. I should play their music more.
Author: Alan Ashworth
Square
Joni Mitchell Part 4: The best of the rest
HOW did Joni Mitchell follow the towering achievement that was Hejira? Answer: With difficulty. As I wrote in a previous column, the album released in late 1976 was in my opinion the … Continue readingJoni Mitchell Part 4: The best of the rest
Warren Zevon: Gorilla You’re a Desperado
‘Big gorilla at the LA Zoo, snatched the glasses right off my face. Stole the keys to my BMW; left me here to take his place.’ Wazza at his brilliant … Continue readingWarren Zevon: Gorilla You’re a Desperado
John Martyn: Singin’ in the Rain
What a charmer JM could be when he felt like it.
Squeeze: Labelled With Love
Some of their stuff was a bit too poppy for my taste but there is no doubting the quality of Squeeze’s songwriting, this being a prime example from 1981.
Tom Waits: Jersey Girl
Unusually melodic cut from the 1980 album Heartattack and Vine. And here’s the Boss doing it live not so long ago.
Nathan Abshire: Les Filles du Canada
This reminds me of my younger days following Nelson FC in the Lancashire Combination. There was an old geezer in the sparse crowd called Frank who went ‘Heh, heh, heh’ … Continue readingNathan Abshire: Les Filles du Canada
Sandy Denny: By The Time It Gets Dark
I prefer this simple demo version to the full-band outtake from the Rendezvous sessions.
Ry Cooder/David Lindley: Alimony
The first song Ry played when I saw him for the first time, in Manchester in 1977. Taken from his eponymous first album released seven years earlier.
The Beach Boy and the Evil Wizard
IT WAS in the spring of 1968 that Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson stopped his car for two attractive girl hitch-hikers in Malibu, Los Angeles. He invited them back to … Continue readingThe Beach Boy and the Evil Wizard