This week it’s the second of our three-part special delving into the magical world of YouTube. You may remember that we covered a top five YouTube clips on our site round about 100 issues ago. Well, since then I’ve discovered so much more (and users have posted so much more) so this week here’s an extended version of that original top 10 – to the extent that it’s now a top 60! Now it goes without saying that YouTube is endless and I dare say there are millions of things I’ve missed out – (so why not point them out on our forum?), but this is the best of what I’ver discovered so far. The only rules to be included on this list are that the videos have to be ‘exclusive’ to YouTube – ie not available officially in any form as of the time of writing (though a couple of Hollies clips only got in by the skin of their teeth – see above). The results below can be anything an AAA member has ever done, including TV appearances, music videos, chat show appearances, concerts (though they have to be rare performances or rare songs or we’d just be listing whole track listings for ‘Smile’), adverts, interviews, rare bits of audio accompanied by pictures, all sorts in fact. Some groups are here more than others of course – partly because some groups have released absolutely every shot of them ever taken already on DVD and there’s nothing there to find or perhaps partly because I haven’t found the right links to take me to them yet despite looking for every AAA member in turn every few months or so – perhaps we’ll be able to a ‘top 100’ list in another 100 issues time? To view these clips, click on the YouTube links we’ve included and they should take you straight there to the heart of the action (apologies to our readers in the future when some of these links may have been taken down, but as of October 2011 they are all present and correct). Look out for 21-1 as our countdown continues next week! Oh and while you’re about it, if you’re a fellow YouTube member why not add me as a ‘friend’ on YouTube and you can have a look through my ‘playlists’ to see what was still interesting but not good enough to make the grade? (I’m Alansarchives if you hadn’t guessed!):
40) Crosby, Stills and Nash – live versions of tracks from aborted ‘covers’ album, 2009-2011
Alas the better quality videos of the first two clips have been taken down since I added them to my ‘favourites’, but no matter...When I heard that the planned CSN/Rick Rubin album of covers was officially cancelled earlier this year it broke my heart. CSN so need to record an album in the style of Johnny Cash’s ‘American’ albums (which Rubin produced) to restore their fanbase and critical standing to past glories and the clips of these three songs tentatively pencilled in for recording seemed like a promising place to start. ‘Uncle John’s Band’ is a great choice, a Grateful Dead song that pays back the debt the Dead owed CSN for this whole style of singing on their two low-budget albums from 1970. ‘Ruby Tuesday’ worked less well I thought, with the chorus booming in from nowhere every time the trio sing it unlike the subtle Stones original but no matter – this is a live recording, they could easily have fixed it and it’s a song that suits their soaring parts well. Thirdly, the audio clip of the band singing Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian’s ‘How Have You Been?’ (oh so nearly the fourth member of the band instead of Neil Young) dates from much earlier (1970?!) but was rumoured to be revived for the project. If so, it would have been terrific and has been haunting me greatly in the year or so since first hearing it. Finally, James Taylor’s ‘You Can Close Your Eyes’ is one of Taylor’s better songs and a nice choice to cover, really benefitting from three-part harmonies even in this poor quality live reading. What a waste. What a let down. Get back into the studio and record these songs anyway CSN, please, even if you do never get a chance to release them!
39) Pink Floyd “The Final Cut Video EP” (1983)
If you, like me, have dying to see the rare-as-a-Floyd-reunion videos for ‘The Final Cut’ then you’ll be cheering both BBC4 for adding the best of the quartet ‘The Fletcher Memorial Home’ to the recent Floyd Miscelleny comp and cheering on YouTube posters for adding the above videos (actually they’re all on YouTube several times over, with this the clearest of the lot that I could find). Still unavailable officially (word was the four videos here were all going to appear as extras on The Wall Film deluxe edition but never showed – so why aren’t they included with the new remastered album then?) and for the most part fabulous, these four videos make the album story clearer by juxtaposing WW2 footage with the then-contemporary Falklands War to damning effect. The Floyd pull of a coup too by using the same actor who played ‘The Teacher’ in ‘The Wall’, the four videos giving this insufferable bully last seen ridiculing Pink’s ‘poetry’ a proper back story that sees him risking his life and limb for his country in 1939-45 only to be betrayed by the promised ‘post-war dream’ of equality and humanity that never appeared. Roger Waters is the only Floyd musician appearing on screen in any of these videos (and even then in silhouette only on the title track) on four of the five best recordings from the album (why no ‘Paranoid Eyes’?!), but don’t let that put you off – Floyd concerts always did their best to hide the band behind thir light shows and videos onstage too. The best of the four is undoubtedly the hilarious ‘Fletcher Memorial Home’, named for Roger’s conscientious objector dad who died in the war anyway at Anzio in 1944, that has The Teacher setting off to kill the inhabitants of the local dictator’s rest home (featuring Hitler, Napolean, Mussolini and – in a very daring move considering she was pm at the time – Margaret Thatcher; no Stalin by the way, which is interesting) only to find out that without all that power behind them these politicians are all just a bunch of hopeless loonies ‘playing’ at being important. As for the other clips, the big-musical-number-in-a-nuclear-plant that is ‘Not Now John’ will haunt you to your dying day just for it’s sheer...oddness, whilst seeing Roger consulting his bitter ‘Teacher’ personality on the title track, even in silhouette, is moving indeed.
38) Grace Slick and Graham Nash “Panda” (1989)
I’ve been trying to track down Nash’s short stint as a chat-show host on American TV for years (‘The Ring’ it was called) – alas this is all I’ve been able to find to date, but the clip’s a good one. Grace Slick is a year away from retirement and is showcasing the last real ‘song’ of her career, released officially on the ill-fated Jefferson Airplane reunion record of the same year. On record ‘Panda’ is an all-too cute and tuneless song about ecology, the sort of which we’ve heard hundreds of times before. But here, with fellow ecologically minded Nash in support (mastermind of the ‘No Nukes’ benefit concerts of 1979, don’t forget) and freed of its 80s synth trappings this seems like a whole new song. Who’d have thought too, nearly 30 years after they first met, that we’d finally get to hear Grace and Graham sing together without David Crosby or Paul Kantner or someone getting in the way – and who’d have thought their voices would have blended in so well? If the whole of the series was like this (and it should be – David Crosby was the next guest after Grace!) then it’ll be an unforgettable treat if it ever does turn up on YouTube!
37) Neil Young and Bert Jansch “Ambulance Blues” (2006)
I love Neil Young, I badly miss the late great Bert Jansch already, I so applaud the Young-organised Bridge School Benefits Concerts for handicapped children (such a range of artists playing on each other’s sets with such a feeling of goodwill about the whole thing) and I love...wait a minute, actually I’m not that keen on ‘Ambulance Blues’ unlike 99% of Neil’s fanbase. But this duet version is a revelation in many ways, presenting the song as one of a long line of folk songs rather than a subdued end to the subdued ‘On The Beach’ album and, thanks to Jansch’s presence, repaying what Neil owes to Jansch’s ‘Needle Of Death’ which is very similar to this song. (I guess that makes me one of the critics with their ‘stomach-pumps and hook and ladder dreams’ then – well all I can say is I’m looking forward to getting together with Neil ‘for some scenes’). A great performance from two great storytellers, one recovering from a brain aneurism, the other battling cancer (‘I guess I’ll call it sickness gone’) – magic. How sad that Neil’s one great line of the song is true: an ambulance really can only go so fast. But how great too to see two performers together who never knew how to give less than their all.
36) Lindisfarne – music videos for ‘Run From Home’, ‘Jukebox Gypsy’, ‘Call Of The Wild’ and ‘Fog On The Tyne’ (1978/79):
OK the quality’s not great and two of the videos end prematurely, but these clips are so rare – the only time you ever see Lindisfarne on TV at all these days is with the original ‘Fog’ clip or (shudder) the one where the band back footballer Paul Gascoigne’s laughable attempts to sing – that it’s welcome to have them in any state at all. All these clips come from the late 70s (‘Fog’ is to promote the re-issue of the song in the same period) and feature the reunited line-up on good form, before the ‘issues’ of the late 80s. ‘Run For Home’ and the outrageously risqué ‘Jukebox Gypsy’ both take place in a Newcastle pub called ‘The Turk’s Head’ (no surprises there then!), with the latter juxtaposed against a clearly freezing model dancing on the beach in her underwear! (It’s that kind of song!) ‘Fog’ takes place at Newcastle harbour on a clearly very freezing day, accompanied by what sounds like the rare re-recording of the song from the ‘C’mon Everybody’ rock and roll album. Best of all is ‘Call Of The Wild’ which features the whole band naked in a cage – who the hell talked them into doing that one?! Alan Hull manages to cope with the situation with dignity, almost, turning in a stellar performance as ever while the rest of the band just look cold – they all look a lot happier by the time we go to the zoo in the second verse, although poor Hully looks very nervous on top of a travelling hay wagon at the song’s end! Four rare time capsules from a sadly forgotten series of albums well worth looking out for.
35) David Crosby at the Brian Wilson Tribute (circa 1998)
I’ve seen most of this so-called ‘tribute’ show by now and it’s toe-curling: lots of people with no talent wanting to be on telly singing songs they haven’t a clue to appreciate. The cover of ‘Surf’s Up’, one of the best songs from ‘Smile’, doesn’t start off any better, with Vince Gill doing some cod-Roy Orbison vibrato and Jimmy Webb treating the song like a series of questions rather than a metaphorical narrative. Then in comes Byrd/CSN man David Crosby on the third verse with those classy harmonies and all is forgiven. The performance goes up another notch with the addition of Crosby singing the ‘Children’s song...’ passage added underneath the song a la the original recording circa 1966, the most moving moment from the most moving album it has ever been my privilege to hear. Sure Crosby’s throat is creaky in places and the backing band clearly don’t have the ability to get the full depth of ‘Surfin’ USA’ never mind one of Brian’s deeper numbers, but what the hell – for a minute there I reached Nirvana (and no I flaming don’t mean Kurt Cobain!) Nice to see lyricist Van Dyke Parks in the audience too.
34) The Searchers – TV clips (from ‘Shindig!’) for ‘He’s Got No Love’, ‘Bumble Bee’, ‘Love Potion no 9’ and ‘Needles and Pins’ (1965), plus ‘When I Get Home’ and ‘Take Me For What I’m Worth’ (1967)
Goodness knows it’s hard to find any clip of The Searchers that isn’t ‘Sweets For My Sweet’ or the tuneless NME pollwinners version of ‘Don’t Throw Your Love Away’, so imagine my delight to find no less than six slices of rare Searchers from Shindig! The first three clips are of a band in transition – Tony Jackson, lead vocalist on a majority of the early recordings, has just been pushed aside to make way for rhythm guitarist Mike Pender – but no one seems to have told the cameraman that and he seems convinced that the shy 18 year old Frank Allen on bass is the star and keeps putting him in shot. Those of you who’ve read my Searchers review will know that I consider the late-period (ie 1965-67) period of this band as one of the least recognised and under-appreciated canons in music- the early hits aren’t bad but the last two albums and assorted singles for Pye are among the best the 1960s had to offer – so imagine my even bigger delight that three poor-selling gems of the period are here: ‘When I Get Home’ ‘Take Me For What I’m Worth’ and the song that came first in our ‘early psychedelia’ poll a few issues back ‘He’s Got No Love’, perhaps the biggest milestone in 60s flower power that people haven’t acknowledged yet (it was recorded at the same time as ‘Help!’ for crying out loud!) At last, my search for The Searchers is at an end.
33) Crosby and Nash performing at the ‘vote Obama’ Rally 2009
A piece of history for you, as Crosby and Nash admit defeat in the election they stood for as joint candidates (hey, I’d have voted for them if they’d lived in my town) and put their weight of feeling behind Barack Obama, back then an unlikely looking second placed runner in the Democrat camp behind Hilary Clinton. I’ve heard better versions of ‘Teach Your Children’ over the years but few are as charged with hope and feeling as this one. As for the ‘longer’ version’s unique performance of ‘This Is My Country’, it’s a saccharine but sadly spot-on dissectment of war and greed which Nash (singing about his adopted home country, of course) clearly feels passionately about. Who’d have guessed that Obama would actually make it into the White House in 2009 with only a couple of hippies and a catchy ‘yes we can’ slogan for support? And leave the guy alone – at least he’s trying to bring money to the poor and staving off catastrophe instead of making things worse and siphoning off money from the needy like the Coalition does in this country...
32) The Kinks – rare music videos ‘Lost and Found’, ‘How Do I Get Close?’, ‘Down All The Days (Till 1992)’ and ‘Only A Dream’:
Whilst every Kinks era up to the early 80s is well catered on CD and even DVD these days, there’s still a big hole on the shelf where the last three (and vastly under-rated) Kinks albums should be. Here are clips for possibly the four best tracks from the last three Kinks LPs (one from ‘Think Visual’, two from ‘UK Jive’ and one from ‘Phobia’), all of which I’d never seen before finding them on YouTube. All of them are pretty bizarre, even compared to the run of Kinks promos for ‘Predictable’ ‘Do It Again’ et al that made my head explode, but all have that typical Kinks oddball charm. ‘Lost’ features a conductor in charge of the band while a backdrop shows Ray as a highway robber (!) for no apparent reason. The ‘Close’ video features Dave Davies dressed as a ‘clown’(an in-joke based on his most famous song ‘Death Of A Clown’) and Ray as a butler (!) for no apparent reason. ‘Down All The Days’, a hopeful song about the UK joining the European Union shows lots of clips of ordinary people across Europe celebrating something – possibly how weird this video is although at least there is a reason for them to be there this time. Finally, ‘Only A Dream’ finds Ray and Dave wandering the streets of Paris in search of the ‘executive Goddess’ in the song, caught halfway between merriment and argument. Enjoy.
31) Alan Hull acts in the BBC play “Squire” (1975):
Alas there’s only a two minute extract of it, but Alan Hull is tremendous in this mid-70s version of ‘Shameless’. Lindisfarne’s lead songwriter was busy promoting his second solo album of the same name at the time and, after dabbling with politics as a backbench MP, turned to acting to fill in the gap between albums. His role here as a long-term unemployed man signing back on after moving to yet another district to look for work is hilarious and deeply believable – perhaps because Hull knew exactly where the character was coming from (most of the early Lindisfarne songs were written when Hull was unemployed for a long long time and even ‘Fog On The Tyne’ has a line about signing off the dole). Let’s hope the rest of this fascinating TV play comes to light sometime soon!
30) Jefferson Airplane “Mexico”, Jefferson Starship “St Charles” and “Count On Me” (acoustic version):
Three terrific slices of the Jeffersons in different eras. ‘Mexico’ was a flop single right at the end of the Airplane’s run but its one of their best ever (if shortest) songs, damning Richard Nixon whose ‘come to call himself king’ by destroying the Mexican underground movement and putting his goons in charge of the drugs scene there whilst ‘taking action’ against Mexicans committing far smaller crimes. This was heady stuff in an era two years before Watergate when most people still ‘trusted’ politicians and the Airplane take no prisoners – there’s certainly no whitewash against this Whitehouse! Grace Slick is terrific on this live version and to boot its virtually the last time we get to see the ‘proper’ Airplane line-up together in one place till 1989. ‘St Charles’ is just the music set to video – but oh what music, this forgotten song from 1976’s Starship album ‘Spitfire’ is one of their very best and the band are on photogenic form as ever. The promo – the only one from the band’s ‘Jefferson Starship’ years with Marty Balin in the band – is rumoured to have been submitted to a ‘film festival’ where it sadly lost, but I have no more details about that I’m afraid! It certainly should have won something, as it’s an atmospheric moody piece very in keeping with the mid-70s with Marty especially on great form. Finally, ‘Count On Me’ is a charming relic from 1978 – the last year for Marty in the band and Grace’s last for several years, with the whole seven piece Starship gathered together round a couch and singing their heart out with just two acoustic guitars for accompaniment. Probably the best song from the album ‘Earth’, it really shows off just how great Marty’s voice still was at this stage and the intimacy between the band members. Three really nice finds.
29) David Crosby “Get Together”(1963):
Apparently this dead early David Crosby song taped in 1963 – two years before The Byrds and his earliest recording barring the Au Go Go Singers album (where he’s inaudible) – did make it out on one of the many re-issues of The Byrds’ ‘Preflyte’ tapes down the years. But I’ve never come across it and I’m willing to bet most of you haven’t either so I’m including it here. What’s fascinating is hearing Crosby’s voice in its early stages, when it’s much more folk-orientated than the later Beatles-inspired rock model. It’s also blooming lovely, with that familiar Crosby lilt and sunshine we’ll get to know so well a few years down the line. The song is important too – it’s one of several ‘old’ (ie pre WW2) songs Crosby ‘discovered’ (along with ‘Hey Joe’) which other artists copied from Crosby after seeing him do it in the folk clubs. Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Airplane do the better known versions of this song (in fact we discussed the latter version not long ago in newsletter 116) and its so flower power-era sounding its hard to believe it was already over a decade old when Crosby sang it here. Two years before he found fame and Crosby already sounds like one to watch.
28) Buffalo Springfield “Bluebird” (unedited version, 1967):
I’ve been dying to hear the full unedited version of one of the greatest Buffalo Springfield songs for years, ever since I heard that it ‘accidentally’ came out on a double-album compilation (simply titled ‘Buffalo Springfield’) in the 70s because the engineer ‘accidentally’ forgot to stop the tape at the right point (alas it never did make it to CD and has been long since deleted). I have to say this full nine minute jam isn’t what I expected – after the familiar slashing Stills guitar three minutes in we simply cut back to a noisy bluesy jam instead of the familiar ‘appalachian banjo’ coda that doesn’t owe that much to the beginning of the song till the end. ‘Bluebird’ somehow ends up into a version of the band’s first album song ‘Leave’ before somehow working its way back into the main riff for the last minute and a final repeat of the song’s chorus. Still, even if these extra few minutes aren’t up to the rest of the song – and the band were right to cut it down to size – it’s still great to hear Stills and Young playing off each other in the studio for pretty much the first time, long before their legendary CSNY guitar duels!
27) Dire Straits – the first demos 1977
The first half dozen recordings by Dire Straits, a full year before their release on the first self-titled Dire Straits record. Mark Knopfler often sounds uncomfortable with the vocals, his guitar licks don’t quite have the confidence he will have in a year or so’s time and the usual glossy Dire Straits production is a long way away but even given such surroundings these six recordings are among the best things the band ever did. When the first Dire Straits record came out in 1978 it was such a breath of fresh air, retro rock with a then-contemporary twist that somehow managed to bypass the worst excesses of the period. Here, right in the middle of punk, these songs must have sounded even more excitingly original. ‘Setting Me Up’ is particularly different without the harmonies of the finished version and with a strangely downbeat feel, while ‘Sultans’ is special just to hear the band still getting up to speed on a new song Mark probably sings in his sleep these days. A wonderful find.
26) David Gilmour in ‘Joker’s Wild’ (1965)
Well, here’s one rare EP you can bet your life won’t be seeing an official release any time soon and it’s fascinating - blooming awful I admit -but fascinating all the same. When David Gilmour joined Pink Floyd as Syd Barrett’s replacement he spent his time trying to add a few West Coast harmonies to a band built on English reserve and mystery where they often didn’t fit (think ‘Crumbling Land’ or the recent ‘On An Island’ collaboration with Crosby and Nash), but it’s clearly always been Gilmour’s ‘calling’, much more than the band’s stock-in-trade of atmospheric neuroticism. Here he is with his first band, the marvellously titled Joker’s Wild, on a five-track EP that had a pressing run of just 50 or so copies in the mid-60s, adding some spry guitar licks to some distinctly Four Seasons-sounding songs which are dominated by falsetto harmonies to the point where you barely register the guitar. Only Gilmour’s sudden guitar break on ‘Delilah’ sounds anything like the Gilmour we will come to know and love and he’s all but inaudible here as a vocalist (except some sweet falsetto) but for fans this incredibly rare collection of songs is a wonderful stepping stone to understanding what was to come. Gilmour won’t work with his colleagues again until his first solo album in 1978, by which time the band sound like any other good AOR rock band, without a harmony in sight.
25) Mike Nesmith recordings pre-Monkees (1964-66):
Five early slices of Mike Nesmith back when he was still using his stage name ‘Michael Blessing’ and trying to make a career for himself as a folk singer. The first clip is from a TV appearance for Nes’ last single – a cover of a then-new Buffy St Marie song that’s become something of a standard since - before the Monkees came along and the star appeal is there already – all that Rafelson and Scheider seemed to add in 1966 was the woolhat. The other four songs are audio only I’m afraid but nonetheless fascinating. ‘Wanderin’ sounds very much like the songs the First and Second National Bands will go on to play on Nesmith’s early post-Monkees albums, ‘Well Well Well’ is a spoof folk tune (with a banjo lick not unlike what Peter Tork will go on to play) and lyrics about ‘Judy’ being ‘the ugliest cat in town’ which no doubt came as a shock to Mrs Judy Nesmith! ‘Searchin’ is an odd song, performed in a deeper register than the rest and much more Beatleised. Finally, ‘Don’t Call On Me’ is indeed the same song that appeared on The Monkees’ ‘Pisces Aquarius’ album two years early and its sung straight rather than as a folk-club pastiche. It’s also rather lovely and proof that Nesmith has the talent to make it even without joining The Monkees – leaving his comment on his Monkees’ audition that ‘up till now I’ve been a failure’ as a bit of a lie. There used to be a YouTube clip of ‘Mike, John and Bill’ (ie Papa Nez, bassist Kohn London and Monkee writer Bill Chadwick) singing Monkees track ‘All The King’s Horses’ on YouTube, but alas that’s gone.
24) The Small Faces perform two unreleased songs “Get Ready” (BBC Session 1968) and “Jump Back” (live 1966):
Wow! Two new Marriott-Lane songs for us to enjoy! And ‘Ready’, the more polished of the two, is one of the better instrumentals of their later-period run, heard here in a performance taken from the Radio One show ‘Top Gear’. It’s similar in feel to the many instrumentals that did make it out on the album ‘Autumn Stone’, with Mac’s organ the dominant sound. ‘Jump Back’ is the earlier, noisier Small Faces with Jimmy Winstun on keyboards and vocals and the band on terrific form, especially Steve Marriott’s feedback drenched guitar. How these two tracks escaped the official CDs – and all of the many Small Faces bootlegs I’ve heard – I’ll never know.
23) The Hollies on Noel Edmund’s House Party (1994)
Imagine the scene: you’re tired, you’ve just come home from work and there’s a bearded loon trying to talk to you when you come in, wittering on about your music tastes for no apparent reason (thank goodness he didn’t bring Mr Blobby with him). This being a Noel Edmonds programme I was expecting a sudden tank of gunge or a custard pie in the face at the very least (see Ray Davies above) but no – that really is The Hollies singing ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’ in your back garden. How kind and how typical of The Hollies to give up their Boxing Day by standing in a freezing cold garden at the dead of night, waiting hours for th signal to perform (they’re all wearing coats – even Alan Coates Boom! Boom!) to honour one of their fans. The Hollies are a truly great and magnanimous band in any line-up (except perhaps the current Peter Howarth one – ‘woah-wa-oh’ to you too brother) and it’s wonderful to see just how much their presence means to the gentleman in question. What good taste you have, my friend!
22) The Hollies “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” (Live 1990)
I so wish the 1990-era of The Hollies had released a live album because then we fans could have had the definitive versions of ‘Soldier’s Song ‘Purple Rain’ and this track, made famous by Procul Harum, which sadly never appeared on record. It was part of a ‘60s memories’ concept the band were doing on this tour, asking their audiences for the songs that reminded them of the decade the most and they also did some other favourites such as The Beatles’ ‘Revolution’ and ‘Wheel’s On Fire’. This was the best and most surprising song, however; Clarkey’s voice is perfectly cast for the I-think-I-know-what-it-means-but-it-might-be-gibberish lines and Hicks’ decision to play the organ part on guitar is a masterstroke. ‘Whiter Shade Of Pale’ was my close friend Linda’s favourite song and The Hollies were one of her favourite bands – hearing the two put together all I can say is, wow what great taste she had.
21) The Monkees on the Johnny Cash show 1969:
Four musical legends for the price of one! This was more or less the first thing The Monkees did after Peter Tork left the band and it’s the best clip of them I’ve seen from a chat show (usually what happens is Davy charms, Mike broods and Micky talks. A lot. But not here). Cash, always open to his guests whatever genre and credibility they have or don’t have, is genuinely respectful without any of that awful ‘but you’re not really musicians!’ talk that ruined most interviews post 1967 and the band obviously like him too (‘I’ll go anywhere you wanna go Johnny!’ says Davy at one point), even though his choice of song ‘Everybody Loves A Nut’ is an odd one. (Never did like that jokey Johnny Cash album of the same name much). His take on ‘Clarksville’ is great though and a shame both that its not longer and that he never did it on record – it sounds pretty good when The Monkees sing it too (with Davy on bass!) So much for the song being ‘dusty’ after three years of singing it – The Monkees still do it now. It’s the near a capella version of Nesmith’s unreleased-till-his-solo-records ‘Nine Times Blue’ that’s the real treat though, with Micky Mike and Davy all singing together, something of a rare occurrence outside ‘Riu Chiu’ and ‘I Don’t Think You Know Me At All’ . The Monkees never did the song like this on record, despite announcing it’s from their ‘new’ one (though Nesmith did attempt it solo a number of times) and its one of the best examples of how uncanny the mix of talents in the band was and how remarkable it is that all four Monkees (with Peter!) had such a terrific blend together when they were picked randomly from different countries, backgrounds and musical interests. Why oh why wasn’t this lovely clip selected for the Johnny Cash Show DVD?!
And that’s it for another week. Tune in next issue for YouTube clips #20-1! Who comes first? Will it be The Spice Girls?! (erm, probably not). Tune in next week to find out!
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221) Dr Who and the AAA (Five Musical Links) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/01/dr-who-and-five-musical-links-to-alans.html
222) Five Random Recent Purchases http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/01/five-random-recent-purchases-news-views.html
223) AAA Grammy Nominees http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/aaa-grammy-nominees-top-twelve-news.html
224) Ten AAA songs that are better heard unedited and in full http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/ten-aaa-songs-that-are-better-unedited.html
225) The shortest gaps between AAA albums http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-shortest-gaps-between-aaa-albums.html
226) The longest gaps between AAA albums http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-longest-gaps-between-aaa-albums.html
227) Top ten AAA drummers http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/03/top-ten-aaa-drummers-news-views-and.html
228) Top Ten AAA Singles (In Terms of 'A' and 'B' Sides) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/top-ten-aaa-singles-and-b-sides-news.html
229) The Stories Behind Six AAA Logos http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-stories-behind-six-aaa-logos.html
230) AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!! The Best Ten AAA Screams http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/the-best-aaa-screams-top-ten-news-views.html
231) An AAA Pack Of Horses http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/aaa-songs-about-horses-top-ten-news.html
232) AAA Granamas - Sorry, Anagrams! http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/aaa-anagrams-news-views-and-music-issue.html
233) AAA Surnames and Their Meanings http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/aaa-surnames-and-their-meanings-news.html
234) 20 Erroneous AAA Album Titles http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/twenty-erroneous-aaa-album-titles-news.html
235) The Best AAA Orchestral Arrangements http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/fifteen-great-aaa-string-parts-news.html
236) Top 30 Hilariously Misheard Album Titles/Lyrics http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/top-thirty-hilariously-misheard-aaa.html
237) Ten controversial AAA sackings - and whether they were right http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ten-controversial-aaa-sackings-news.html
238) A Critique On Critiquing - In Response To Brian Wilson http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/a-critique-on-critiquing-in-response-to.html
239) The Ten MusicianS Who've Played On The Most AAA Albums http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/the-ten-musicians-whove-played-on-most.html
240) Thoughts on #CameronMustGo http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/thoughts-on-cameronmustgo.html
241) Random Recent Purchases (Kinks/Grateful Dead/Nils Lofgren/Rolling Stones/Hollies) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/six-random-recent-purchases-kinksg.html
242) AAA Christmas Number Ones http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/aaa-christmas-number-ones.html
243) AAA Review Of The Year 2014 (Top Releases/Re-issues/Documentaries/DVDs/Books/Songs/ Articles plus worst releases of the year) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/aaa-review-of-year-2014.html
244) Me/CFS Awareness Week 2015 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/mecfs-awareness-week-at-alans-album.html
245) Why The Tory 2015 Victory Seems A Little...Suspicious http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/why-tory-victory-seems-deeply.html
246) A Plea For Peace and Tolerance After The Attacks on Paris - and Syria http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/a-plea-for-peace-and-toleration.html
247) AAA Review Of The Year 2015 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/the-aaa-review-of-year-2015.html
248) The Fifty Most Read AAA Articles (as of December 31st 2015) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-fifty-most-read-aaa-posts-2008-2015.html
249) The Revised AAA Crossword! http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016_07_10_archive.html
251) Half-A-Dozen Berries Plus One (An AAA Tribute To Chuck Berry) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/an-aaa-covers-tribute-to-chuck-berry.html
254) Guest Post: ‘Supertramp – Some Things Never Change’ by Kenny Brown https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/06/guest-review-supertramp-some-things.html
255) AAA Review Of The Year 2018 https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-aaa-review-of-year-2018.html
256) AAA Review Of The Year 2019 plus Review Of The Decade 2010-2019 https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-alans-album-archives-review-of-year.html
257) Tiermaker https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2019/06/alans-album-archives-on-tiermaker.html
258) #Coronastock https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2020/04/coronastock.html
259) #Coronadocstock https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2020/05/coronadocstock.html
