October 6th:
♫ New releases this week: a very weird Jefferson Thingy
album (ie another curious Airplane/
Starship hybrid), with Paul Kantner hosting a CD on which various friends and
associates record cover versions of songs that inspired the making of ‘his’
band (there’s something odd there—Marty Balin, the real founder of Jefferson
Airplane and its early driving force, features here simply as a ‘guest’, just
as he has on all recent Kantner-founded Jefferson CDs. Actually Marty hired
Paul not the other way around!) I’m also deeply confused as to why David
LeFlamme, founder and mainstay of unfairly neglected San Francisco band ‘It’s A
Beautiful Day’ appears on this album—as far as I know his group had nothing in
common with the Airplane except the time period and playing the odd show at the
same venues! Some good news however—after getting her out of retirement to
write some hilarious sleeve-notes for the last few Jefferson-related releases,
Kantner has finally got Grace Slick back into the studio for the first time
since the Airplane reunion of 1989, albeit you won’t know that from the sleeve
as Grace only sings on a ’hidden’ song unlisted on the packaging.
♫ One other new
release this week: the first-time-on-CD release by the forgotten second line-up
of Lindisfarne , ‘Happy Daze’ (first released
in 1974). For those of you who’ve read my review of ’It’s Jack The Lad’ on the
site already (review number 61), this is what the other two founder members of
Lindisfarne were up to during the mid-70s. After the band’s big split in 1972,
Alan Hull and Ray Jackson carried on with the old band name for two poorly
received albums, ’Roll On Ruby’ (1973, released on CD in 2005) - a quite dull
and uninspiring album, sadly rather deserving of its unloved status among most
fans—and this little gem, which sold terribly badly but really show this second
line-up of Lindisfarne beginning to click together (the poor sales meant there
never was a third album by this line-up, despite reaching as far as the writing
and rehearsal stage—anooyingly, most of the people who worked on that project
say it was the best out the three). Jacaka’s lead vocals on this album are some
of his best, veering from blues to pop with ease, while new members Thomas
Duffy (gravel-throated bassist) and Kenny Craddock (falsetto and keyboards) all
but steal the show. Alan Hull is, unusually, relegated to novelty songs about
drinking too heavily. Best of all, though, is the presence of a very early
acoustic Alan Hull song, ’River’, which was inventively recorded in the open
air when the band got bored of the studio and features a prime Hully vocal
tinged with bird-song. How this understated lovely composition, the twin sister
to Hully’s popular ’Winter Song’, got left off the first three Lindisfarne
records I have no idea! Worth buying the CD for alone, now that its out at
budget price.
♫ New Oasis album ‘Dig Out Your Soul’ is also out this
week, but it needs to becomne a bit cheaper before I can afford to buy it! The
latest batch of national reviews/previews for it have taken me quite by surprise, being as
negative about the album and the band as they used to be back in the bad old
days of ’Be Here Now’ (nice ideas dragged out for much longer than they needed
to be) and ’Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants (a patchy but generally
under-rated little gem).I’ve read about six times now what a bizarre thing it
is for the band to be aping psychedelia in this day and age —not so, I say!
(most of my favourite Oasis tracks are cod-psychedelia, from ’Champagne
Supernove’ to ’Who Feels Love?’, so perhaps its monkeynbuts AAA fans rather
than mainstream critics who are going to like this album?! Hope so!)
♫ Anniversaries
This Week: Kevin Godley (10cc, 1972-75) turns 63 on October 7th, while October
9th would have seen both the 68th birthday of John Lennon and the 64th birthday
of John Entwistle. Events this week: The Beatles reject a record $1 million
offer to return to touring after the owners of Shea Stadium collect the record
amount(1967; October 7); 15 years later, The Who kick off their 1982 ’farewell
tour’ at that very stadium (they reformed in 2000; so strictly speaking it’s a
first ’farewell tour’ in the Frank Sinatra sense of the word; October 12) and
John Lennon (nearly) celebrates his 35th birthday by finally getting his ’green
card’ , a decision which allows him to become a US citizen despite the drugs
record that nearly had him deported from the US several times during the 70s
(October 7).
