Sorry this has been temporarily removed to make way for Weekly Playlist No 19 but it will return shortly for streaming - watch this space...
Then there's music from some of the latest acquisitions to pop through the letter box here at Crispycat Towers, a couple of tracks from some of my albums of the year from 1976 and 1977 and some Alice Cooper re my ongoing attempts to indoctrinate my niece and nephew into The Coop's work whenever we drive to pick up Chinese takeaways...
I've also included items from two recent re-releases available over at Bandcamp from my music buddy Mr Peri Urban, which just so happen to include some musical input from your correspondent...
There's a beautiful piece from Alfred Schnittke taken from a concert from 2011 re the tenth anniversary of September 11, along with some far out jazz from Soft Machine and re a couple of concerts added to the hard drive this week featuring two of my guitar faves, John McLaughlin and Allan Holdsworth...
And, finally, a great piece from the new album by The Bad Plus, their interpretation of Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring"...
No chat from me (other than the notes below), just the music - hope you enjoy it...
Morrissey - Sorry Doesn't Help (Years of Refusal)
One of Jamie's favourite artists - he loaned me Morrissey's autobiography a couple of weeks before he died - it lay on the shelf untouched and I gave it back to him on the night of our last rehearsal. I have all Morrissey's albums in my collection but very little of The Smiths, never having liked them at the time when everyone else was raving about the man with the hearing aid and the flowers in his back pocket...
Alice Cooper - Desperado (Killer)
On Sunday, a trip to the local Chinese Takeaway with nephew Olly and Niece Kitty was soundtracked by "Dead Babies" from "Killer" - they like singing along to the "Goodbye Little Betty" refrain. Due to time constraints though, I've included this track, apparently written for Jim Morrison, which also came up on the car stereo later in the week...
The Divine Comedy - Everybody Knows Except You (A Short Album About Love)
As is my wont, I trawl Amazon for 1p CDs (ok with £1.26 postage) and this is one which arrived this week (more below). Although I had no time for The Divine Comedy when they were first introduced to me in 1994 by a German friend who was particularly taken by their use of language, I have grown to really enjoy Neil Hanlon's take on matters - this track demonstrates perfectly, his songwriting prowess - which it took me some time to recognise...
Schnittke - Collected Songs Where Every Verse is Filled With Grief (Sounds and Silence : Remembering September 11)
I downloaded some music by William Basinski a couple of weeks ago. I saw him at last year's Denovali Festival in London (which I'm off to again in a couple of week's time). This concert includes a 40 minute orchestration of one of his "Disintegration Loops". For the podcast though, I've chosen this excellent piece by one of my favourite composers, Alfred Schnittke...
Elvis Presley - Blue Suede Shoes (The '68 Comeback)
For my sins, I've recently become interested in the music of Elvis Presley. This week I acquired a 2CD set of his '68 Comeback Special (and I've just borrowed a 7CD box set from the music library). The track I've chosen, coincidentally, was the final song Jamie, Andy and I played together - of course we didn't know it at the time...
Parliament - Up For the Downstroke (Get Funked Up!)
Another 1p CD which came through the door early in the week. I used to have Parliament's double live album back in the 70's but never really got them then. Now that it's a bit too late for me to do much dancing, I really like this stuff - ah, the irony...
Schubert - Piano Sonata D894; III Menuetto: Allegro moderato (Piano Sonatas D784, D894)
I was recently swithering about a box set of Schubert's complete piano sonatas (and may still partake) but, for now, this purchase sufficed. The D984 will be played at the Edinburgh Festival this summer and the Exec Producer and I may well be in attendance...
Handel - Serse : Ombra Mai Fu (Andreas Scholl - Heroes)
I love the sound of the countertenor voice and, when combined with the writing of Herr Handel, it's just beautiful - another of this week's acquisitions - a lovely disc featuring the very high voice of a six foot plus German...
Cloudland Blue Quartet & Peri Urban - Layer 5 (Strata)
In 1996, the first appearance of the name Cloudland Blue Quartet was on a collaboration with old chum Stewart Robinson, aka Peri Urban. A limited edition of just 50 CDs of improvisations recorded on two dates. We followed this up with further improv albums in 1997 and 1998. In late '98, Peri worked on combining all the improvs from the three releases together to form new tracks and issued it as a double CD. He's recently remastered it and, this week, he re-issued it on his Bandcamp page...
Peri Urban - Stranded (Sonic Party Hat)
...along with a solo album from 2001, on which I sang three or four tracks and contributed lyrics to another. Versions of all the songs I sang turned up on my own 2002 release, "Ampersand" but the "originals" are on this work, including this, one of my favourites amongst Peri's songs...
John McLaughlin & The 4th Dimension - Trancefusion (Leverkusener Jazztage Festival 2012)
This week, I downloaded two hour long concerts which just so happened to be from the same German Jazz Festival, albeit two years apart. Long and complex pieces which demonstrate what I like best about jazz fusion, this John McLaughlin performance and...
Allan Holdsworth - Leave Them On (Leverkusener Jazztage Festival 2010)
...this from Allan Holdsworth - The Holdsworth gig was particularly enjoyed, as I saw this trio play in Glasgow around the same time at a quite brilliant concert - "nice!" (c) The Fast Show...
And so to Jamie's music...
Dougie MacLean - Caledonia (Caledonia)
The walk-in piece from Jamie's celebration this week. Written in 10 minutes by Mr McLean on a beach in Brittany whilst homesick for his home in Perthshire, Scotland. When he returned to the youth hostel he was staying at and played it to his friends, they all decided to head home the next day....
James Jamieson - Precious (Precious)
On the sleeve notes to the original issue of Jamie's album, he noted that this was the first original song he ever played live and, as such, it held special memories for him. For a long time, his daughter Madison thought it was a cover version of someone more famous than her dad...
The next six selections are the songs which comprised the closing music from Jamie's funeral, chosen by his family...
Frank Sinatra - You Make Me Feel So Young (Songs for Swingin' Lovers)
I know Jamie admired the music of Frank Sinatra - he used to do a mean cover of "Fly Me to the Moon". And Jamie did indeed make everyone around him feel so young...
Middle of the Road - Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep (Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep)
This is apparently one Jamie liked to sing in the car with his younger brothers and sister on their way to their holidays in the early seventies - even though, it has to be said, it is one of the most annoying songs ever written - absolutely ideal for children in a car when their parents have nowhere to go though...
The Associates - Party Fears Two (Sulk)
The Associates' Billy Mackenzie was probably Jamie's all time favourite singer. We saw the band together in 1980 at Eric Browns in Edinburgh, on the same stage we had often graced in our band Capital Models. Jamie's own song "Why Billy Why", which opens his album, laments his hero's untimely suicide at just 39...
Gene Pitney - 24 Hours From Tulsa (Blue Gene)
This is typical of the huge number of classic songs which Jamie had in his repertoire - give the boy a guitar and he'd be up like a shot to entertain everyone within earshot. I saw him perform this song one night at the songwriters' club "Out of the Bedroom" - in flagrant breach of the club's "originals only" rule. No one minded though because it was head and shoulders above anything else played that night...
Stealers Wheel - Stuck in the Middle With You (Stealers Wheel)
Another favourite of audiences whenever Jamie gave his rendition. Ironically, on our last night together it was Andy not Jamie who sang this particular track...
Paolo Nutini - Candy (Sunny Side Up)
I had no time for Paolo Nutini - until Jamie introduced me to this song, which quickly became one of my favourites to play in the band. Drummer Keith always complained that we played the "single" version, without the long outro. We never did get round to learning the full version...
A fitting send off...
Rainbow - Tarot Woman (Rainbow Rising)
First of two classic tracks (in my mind anyway) from 1976, which were listened to on Friday as Anne and I drove around town. In rock, you don't get much better than the glorious voice of Ronnie James Dio. And, when combined with the guitar of Ritchie Blackmore and the drums of the late Cozy Powell - it ROCKS...
The Tubes - Tubes World Tour (Young and Rich)
One of my all time faves, The Tubes, from San Francisco - what a show those guys present whenever they play live - we last saw them just a couple of years back. A young Mr CBQ bought their second album"Young and Rich" when it was released in '76, around the same time as he acquired the Rainbow album above and Kiss's classic "Destroyer". I love this opening track, with its tales of what happened in each city they visited. I recall this being an encore when I saw the band at Knebworth in '78 with Count Brodski. Guitarist Bill Spooner took to the stage to play the opening riff, then the rest of the band came on and all stood behind him mocking his exaggerated movements - classic...
Soft Machine - Hazard Profile pt 1 (Bundles)
Some more excellent jazz fusion. This is the almost final line up of the ever-changing Soft Machine and allows us to enjoy Allan Holdsworth's guitar prowess once again. I was listening to this on their double CD retrospective "Tales of Taliesin", the sleeve notes for which were written by my blog buddy and Soft Machine aficionado, Mr Sid Smith...
Brian Eno - By This River (Before and After Science)
Now, while Jamie would chose to cover Frank Sinatra or Gene Pitney or Neil Diamond, this was a song I covered back in the day - one which probably very few people in the audience had ever heard. I think this juxtaposition in outlook was one of the things which made Jamie and me together such a good thing. In our live sets, we could go quite easily from "Sweet Caroline" into "Sweet Jane". Unlike me, Jamie was completely without pretension. However, for me, this song (and the work of Brian Eno in general) knocks Messrs Sinatra, Pitney and Diamond into the proverbial cocked hat. Music eh? Such a subjective concept...
The Bad Plus - Second Part: The Sacrifice: Sacrificial Dance - (The Rite of Spring)
Invoking the spirit both of the mighty King Crimson and their own back catalogue, this week's podcast is brought to an end by a track from the best acquisition of the week, the long awaited recording of theBad Plus's interpretation of one of Stravinsky's great works - which they've been playing around the world for a few years now. Brilliant stuff, ending on a high with my favourite jazzers...
Hope you enjoy the podcast and will pop by again next week...
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