Author: Alan Ashworth

From the just-released Zappa ’88: The Last U.S. Show. Not the best version of The Black Page but a must-listen all the same. And as a bonus, the theme from … Continue readingFrank Zappa: The Black Page

I’ll be tarred and feathered as a heretic, but I actually prefer this to the Stones’ version. There, I’ve said it.

From his 1976 album Havana Daydreamin’, a sweet cover of the Jesse Winchester song.

From their fun first album, when they were more punk than pop. As I wrote here, https://am-records.com/2019/06/03/gentlemen-prefer-blondie/ I saw them in 1977 and they were great.

Musically, this is a tribute to Jackson Browne’s These Days but lyrically it’s quite different. A lovely performance from Jason and fiddler Amanda Shires. This is from the excellent 2013 … Continue readingJason Isbell: Different Days

I’m sure I am not alone in finding the band’s masks deeply creepy. This is a 2015 performance of the song which first appeared on Nick Lowe’s Cowboy Outfit in … Continue readingNick Lowe and Los Straitjackets: Half A Boy and Half A Man

Belting Bob Mould rocker from Sugar’s debut LP Copper Blue, named Best Album of 1992 by the NME.

If this 1973 number from the Jamaican Earl Zero sounds familiar, that’s because Jonathan Richman nicked it, jollied it up a bit and released it in 1977 as Egyptian Reggae, … Continue readingEarl Zero: None Shall Escape the Judgement

His vocals always remind me of Mark Knopfler but the guitar work is far more jagged. Rainer Ptacek was an East German refugee who fled with his family in 1956, … Continue readingRainer and Das Combo: Life is Fine