Monday 15 October 2012

News, Views and Music Issue 166 (Intro)




October 24:

Dear all, we’ve reached that magic point in our history when we are – gulp – exactly halfway through our trawl of all things AAA. Yes, I really am mad enough to have counted up how many reviews I will have to write (502 to be exact) – and that’s assuming that a) no more come out during the next five years and b) special editions, april fool’s issues, choice reunion albums and solo albums don’t count on that list (otherwise I’ll still be writing it when I’m 903 and have genetically mutated into a timelord) although if I have the time and energy I’d like to write those too before the end. What have we learnt so far on our travels? Erm, don’t trust Governments then and now (Cameron is the re-incarnation of Nixon for sure – and there I was spending a decade thinking it was Blair), albums can fade or rise in different eras when they’re ripe for re-discovery and music is the only answer we have to what life throws at us.
Around 0.001% will be interested to learn how, statistically, each AAA member has been covered so far. The top three most covered groups (in terms of albums reviewed so far) are Dire Straits, Small Faces and Janis Joplin on 75% - but then the first one only released six albums and the others four; the highest of our longterm AAA men covered is John Lennon at 71.4%. The lowest members, which we’ll have to get a bit of a move on with include Jefferson Airplane/Starship at 38.8%, The Beach Boys at 36.6% and this week’s review group Pentangle now at a lowly 33.3%. We’ll be trying to concentrate on some of the lower-banded artists in the weeks to come in an effort to work out these reviews roughly equally, so bear with us!

By the way this is a slightly shorter newsletter than normal this week because I’m absolutely whacked out with another chronic fatigue outbreak after another busy week (although at least I’ve managed to get most of my Christmas shopping done!) We should be back up to full length next week (I hope!)

In other news, I can’t believe what I’m hearing from this year’s Tory conference. In one breath the Conservatives announced that they would be dropping the Lib Dem-invented wealth tax on millionaires – and in the same breath announced a further £1 billion cuts to welfare despite the fact that everyone in the country except cabinet members have already considered what they’ve done to be a really bad idea. A whole host of celebs still paying tax in the UK have come forward and said they don’t think they’re paying enough, so what does our beloved overpaid leader do? He helps himself to a fortune by renting out his second house paid for by taxpayer’s money, that’s what! And if the Government really were interested in saving money then why not say adios to unemployment company G4S and disability testers ATOS, both of whom have repeatedly broken the law and proved themselves to be a shambles (instead of which both have been given bonuses and more control in the coming years). Frankly I’m getting scared about the powers and corruption of this controlling man who didn’t even win the election and yet has forced through more longer-term changes in our history than any other leader since Napoleon (and even he wasn’t as nuts as Cameron is). I’m even more scared by the inability of the world’s media to report what’s really going on and how badly people are suffering and want this corrupt sinister presence out of our lives (click here for what the public really thinks of David Cameron, all comments posted during his first hour on Twitter). Let’s hope the world really does end this December – because with another year of the Coalition there won’t be anything left of the country to save.

More news: apparently One Direction think they’re the new incarnation n of The Beatles. Apparently one of them saw the documentary ‘Beatles in the USA’ and said he really ‘recognised our personalities’. Hmm, I get it now, you’re a band made up of four Ringos! That explains a lot...
In the meantime, cheer yourself up by rummaging through our latest news column (the link is below!)

http://paper.li/f-1347835090

KINKS News: The one item extra to report is that BBC4 are repeating their previous Kinks night on Friday, October 19th, first shown about last Christmas. I’m particularly grateful as my copy of the Ray Davies doc ‘Imaginary Man’ was ruined by my DVD recorder giving up the ghost, while doc on brother Dave Davies ‘Kinkdom Kome’ (which I do still have a copy of) is every bit as good. Best of all there’s a new compilation of Kinks material from the BBC archives, collected from old TOTPs, Old Grey Whistle Tests and various TV shows down the years.



ANNIVERSARIES: Unusually there are no AAA stars celebrating birthdays this week (October 17th and 23rd) and to be honest not many events happening either. Anniversaries of events this week include: The Beatles make their first TV appearance, singing ‘Some Other Guy’ at the Cavern Club for TV show ‘People And Places’ (October 17th 1962), The Dick Lester film ‘How I Won The War’ starring John Lennon receives its premiere at London Pavilion (October 18th 1967); An early riot at a Stones gig in France where 150 people are arrested for causing £1400 of damage to the stadium and nearby buildings (October 20th 1964) and finally, The Who – then still gigging under the name ‘High Numbers’ – are rejected after an audition at EMI (October 22nd 1964)

Pentangle "Solomon's Seal" (1972)



You can now buy 'Watch The Stars - The Alan's Album Archives Guide To The Music Of Pentangle' in e-book form by clicking here!









Pentangle “Solomon’s Seal” (1972)


Sally Free and Easy/The Cherry Tree Carol/The Snows/High Germany/People On The Highway//Willy O’Winsbury/No Love Is Sorrow/Jump Baby Jump/Lady Of Carlisle


On paper things looked good for Pentangle in 1972. The band had just signed to Warner Brothers, a record label with much clout than their old partners the much-missed Transatlantic Records and after a couple of years in the wilderness seemed to be clawing their way back to their artistic and commercial peak with ‘Basket Of Light’. But as we’ve seen so often on this site, just when things seemed to be going well more tragedy struck, the album disappeared without trace and the band sadly decided to call it a day. ‘Solomon’s Seal’, the last of six the original line-up recorded, thus became so obscure that it became the band’s poorest seller and wasn’t re-issued until as late as 2003 because the master-tapes to the album had ‘gone missing’ (they later turned up in guitarist John Renbourn’s house, propping up his harmonium which had a wonky leg – a fact which tells you everything you need to know about how seriously band and management were taking this record. Surprisingly, even after a gap of some 31 years, critics still didn’t take to this record too kindly and dismissed it on its CD release as a poor album by a tired and distracted band that failed to match up to past glories. The band don’t like it much either, seeing as collectively they were still paying back the Warner Brothers advance money as late as the 1980s!

Well, as far as I’m concerned, everyone – in 1972, in 2003 and now in 2012 – are entirely comprehensively unanimously wrong. ‘Solomon’s Seal’ might not be the breath of fresh air that ‘Basket Of Light’ represented, but this record is easily my second favourite among the Pentangle LPs, with plenty of good examples of the band’s unique ten-styles-in-one sound and a real urgency and spirit that isn’t always present on the band’s other albums. The band know they’re going their separate ways – it’s the dominant theme of all the lyrics on the three original songs written for the album – but unlike most bands who split unexpectedly there’s no lack of band performances or collaboration on this album. To their dying day, it seems, Pentangle were a unique breed who really did put the music over and above everything else going on in their private lives and there are few bands who have bowed in such a graceful way as this album’s ‘goodbye’ songs ‘People On The Highway’ and ‘No Love Is Sorrow’. In fact Pentangle are almost unique in AAA bands for lasting from the beginning five whole years and six whole albums without changing a single member of personnel (The Kinks and The Hollies matched them in terms of albums but not years but actually only The Who’s eight studio album run between 1965 and 1978 beats it) and sound every bit as committed to the band as when they started.

In fact I’d go so far as to say that, with better promotion, this could have been a whole new lease of life for the band. The Warners sound is much warmer and fuller than the Transatlantic sound (although that might just be the CD re-mastering; sadly ‘Solomon’s Seal’ is the one Pentangle record I don’t own on vinyl, mainly because it costs about £50 these days) and the bass and drums of Danny Thompson and Terry Cox are much louder in the mix than before. This might be because the band were recording in London’s ‘Sound |Techniques’ studios for the first time, one that gave the band’s music a much warmer, airier quality. There’s also less ‘folk filler’ as I call it, old folk songs that haven’t been changed that much from the hundreds of years of oral history; by contrast all of the six traditional songs on the album have been carefully adapted to the electric folk-boom of the 1960s and 70s and sound much more contemporary and relevant than many of Pentangle’s records (the exquisite ‘Basket Of Light’ aside). There’s less room for jazz improvisation on this album too – not that I mind Pentangle when they’re lost in the space of a jam on other records, but it does tend to fill up 10 minutes of a record that only runs to half an hour. No, as far as consistency across an entire record goes ‘Solomon’s Seal’ is definitely the second choice for me.

Fans must have known something was up, though, from the title of the record on down. In various legends told in Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities King Solomon used his ‘seal’ to communicate with various spirits, genies and magical creatures. The most famous use is in a story told in the Arabian Nights where Aladdin’s genie has been sealed in a bottle; using this special seal and historians have sought for many centuries, unsuccessfully, to work out if there was any true ‘fact’ about the deal, particularly in alchemy. But alchemy – the art of turning ordinary objects to gold – also works the other way around, as so many people forget (many scientists sought to work using this method because they thought it would be ‘easier’ – and then work backwards to discover how to do it in reverse). The relevance of all this to Pentangle? The seal was thought to be a five-sided shape that looked not unlike the Star of David, a shape that in modern day terms would have been called a ‘pentagram’ (for those who haven’t read my review of ‘Basket Of Light’ yet a ‘pentangle’ is a ‘magical’ symbol which the band chose because they, like it, had five sides and ‘magical powers’). As the intriguing pen-and-ink cover illustration by band friend Chris Ayliffe makes clear, the ‘symbol of five’ dates back many centuries and has passed through many cultures before Pentangle used it as the source of their name. It’s still printed on coins printed in Muslim countries, for instance. And not one of these stories involving pentangles or Solomon seals or Star Of Davids come to that seem to have had a happy ending (just think of what happened to the Jews in WW2 who were forced to sew the symbols onto their clothes; And you thought Solomon just liked going to the zoo and talking to seals!)

Interestingly, given Pentangle’s raison d’aitre to update old stories and songs and make them sound brand new, ‘Solomon’s Seal’ features songs that date back much further than anything else the band were ever to record. ‘The Cherry Tree Carol’ was first recorded in the 1500s but as even that was a ‘reference’ to an older source it could easily be centuries older. It’s also, surprisingly, the only folk song Pentangle did from the much-thumbed Victorian collection of oral folklore ‘The Child Ballads’ (not a nursery book for toddlers – it’s named after the compiler). ‘Lady Of Carlisle’ probably dates back even further, to the 1200s, and may well be one of the earliest folk songs in existence anywhere (along with poxy newcomer London, Carlisle is the only town/city with a population of significance in the Medieval period) and has been re-written and re-recorded about every century or so since, so the question really is why Pentangle took so long to record it (even the Grateful Dead did their own sort-of update on it – of which more in our top five!) The other songs aren’t quite so old, but are older than your average album of 1972: ‘The Snows’ is probably the most common piece featured here and is usually given its full title ‘The Snows They Melt The Soonest’ – it dates back to the early 1800s. As for ‘High Germany’, it dates back to the 1700s and was probably written during one of many English wars with Spain (if anyone Spanish is reading this, I apologise whole-heartedly for what was done in the name of the British Empire as I do to my Australian, American, French, German and Dutch brethren; heck with it I’m just sorry to everyone).

As on other Pentangle LPs, the musicianship on this album is extraordinary. Far from sounding bored or distracted as most reviewers have it, the range of tones on this album is even wider and more far-reaching than ever. The often ugly jazz of the first two albums i long gone, to be replaced by a gorgeous mix of twin acoustic guitars, double bass and drums, plus various selective touches including a banjo, a dulcimer and a sitar. Often when bands try to ‘stretch’ their sounds the result is one daft noise, but with Pentangle this mix of sounds makes perfect sense because of the band’s ‘purpose’ of updating songs from different eras. Like every other Pentangle album, ‘Solomon’s Seal’ comes across as nothing less than a history of mankind, with the same hopes fears and dreams the same for every era, from as early as records began. However I would say that ‘Seal’ works better than most because it is so rich in textures, as if a group of passing minstrels from the Middle Ages really have fallen out of your speakers into the 1970s and started messing about with electricity. The use of sitar – sadly not used since ‘Basket Of Light’ despite the fact that Bert is one of the greatest Western players of the instrument – adds in the idea that the ideas in the Pentangle songs transcend space as well as time, with the same tangle of human emotions as real for the East as the West. I’d love to have heard where the band might have gone after this record – perhaps to all out psychedelia (the natural conclusion of the jazzy tones heard on their earlier LPs), perhaps to the heavier, more electric sounds of their contemporaries (like Steelye Span and Fairport Convention).

One other point: I’ve just come to this review straight from an article about how Pentangle are ‘The English Grateful Dead’. That’s not so strange as it sounds as Dead fans will be aware; even though they’re now known as a ‘rock’ band, all amplifiers and piercing guitar solos, there’s a strong country-folk element to the Dead’s work and they, too, featured a massive 300-odd rotating list of cover songs to play (legend has it that their much-loved ‘acoustic set’ in the middle of their shows came about after touring with Pentangle in 1969). The two bands often chose songs from the same folk repertoire, although surprisingly given how large the pile of material was for both bands they only ever had one song in common (the exquisite ‘Cold Rain and Snow’ which appears on ‘Grateful Dead’ in 1967 and Pentangle’s ‘Reflection’ in 1971). Like the Dead, too, the band could play solo spots, duos (usually Bert and John) and extended instrumental pieces (Danny and Terry) – although thankfully the Dead never attempted Jacqui’s a capella singing. Above all, though, improvisation is the key to understanding and loving both bands, the thrill for the audience of never quite knowing where the band are going to go next and making these old traditional songs ‘live’ in the present much more than if they’d been played in rigid arrangements (It’s a crying shame that only one ‘proper’ live album exists compared to the Dead’s seven or eight). Anyway you’d be surprised how many fans have admitted to loving both!

If there’s a theme on this album then its one of loss and moving on. Many of the songs on ‘Solomon’s Seal’ feature a mixture of grief and joy, regret at something ending and coming to a natural course but excited for what might take its place. Opener ‘Sally Free and Easy’ might be criticised in the lyrics for being too, err, friendly to strangers but the lovely lilt of the lyrics makes it clear that freedom and being able to go where you want is to be worshipped, not scorned. ‘The Snows’ is actually a song about Spring rather than Winter, with every animal stuck in the snow looking forward to happier times. Bert Jansch’s ‘People On The Highway’ talks about escape, of ‘leaving my troubles behind’ and how its best to leave what you’re doing when you’re too busy to notice ‘sunny days’ outside your window. ‘No Love Is Sorrow’ finds a maiden scared and excited on receiving a marriage proposal, leaving her unsure whether to stick to her ‘old’ safe way of life or say ‘yes’ and enjoy a whole new world. ‘Jump Baby Jump’, written by Bert and John during a mountain climbing holiday in Ireland, seems to talk of suicide, but in such a thrilling, leave-your-troubles-behind kind of a way that’s more about the happiness on the other side of death than the misery in life. And then we’re back in the ‘lion’s den’ of ‘Lady Of Carlisle’, where a lady’s would be suitors have been set impossible tasks in which they may well lose their lives but where the prize is special – again there’s a choice between carrying on safely the way you always have or risking all for the unknown, which isn’t all that far removed from the decisions facing Pentangle when they were making this album.

So, when all the dust has settled and now that we have the seemingly doomed ‘Solomon’s Seal’ back on the shelf alongside the other Pentangle CDs is this a long lost treasure or simply a bit of flotsam best left behind? Definitely the former in my view – yes there’s nothing here quite as remarkable as ‘Once I Had A Sweetheart’ or ‘Light Flight’ but to my ear’s there’s more focus and invention here than on the previous couple of albums ‘Cruel Sister’ and ‘Reflections’ – and I say that as a fan who loves both albums; the former for its cold brilliance, all uncaring 20 minute epics and a capella songs; the latter for its decision to stick to its strengths and give us everything Pentangle stood for in short three minute bursts. For me though ‘Solomon’s Seal’ is an improvement because it manages to find the halfway house between these two very different takes on the traditional song, with three or four mini-epics treated far more seriously and piously than other bands would dare, together with some of Pentangle’s best original material, as contemporary to early 70s folk-rock as Pentangle ever came before their often misguided reunions. ‘Solomon’s Seal’ is the sound of a band who’ve finally worked out how to compromise between treating their audience as grown-ups and becoming too far detached from what everyone else is listening to in the same period.

‘Sally Free and Easy’ pretty much sets the tone for this moody album, with Cyril Tawney’s song/sea shanty (Tawney was a sailor with the Royal Navy before becoming a folksinger in the 1950s) about freedom pretty much the theme for the album. Like many a Pentangle cover song, the words and music are telling us two very different things: Sally is ‘free and easy’, loving life and spending it with every man she chooses and, for the first verse at least, sounds more like a celebration of life. But the music is ponderous and bottom-heavy, thanks to Danny Thompson’s sawing double bass being mixed higher than usual and a curiously unlike Pentangle electric backing with John Renbourn’s work closer to Cream or Jimi Hendrix than folk. Together with the blurry production that makes everything gloriously murky and fog-like and the slower than average tempo, it makes the whole piece sound like a nightmare, slowly catching up with the poor scorned lover watching his beloved cavorting with others. Interestingly Bert gets to take the lead vocal, with Jacqui’s vocal reduced to a delightful wordless harmony part in the background, adding to the sweet-and-sourness of the track (which had it been given to Jacqui would have brought out the purity and innocence more). The four short verses (there is no chorus) pack an awful lot into their short lines, with the narrator’s curse ‘When my body’s landed, think she’ll die of shame’ showing just how deeply the jealousy and bitterness rages. An intriguing start to the album, with a much more melancholy sound than usual from Pentangle and evidence that to the very end they were looking for new varieties on their old sound.

‘The Cherry Tree Carol’ is much more traditional fare, with Jacqui’s wonderfully sweet vocal back in the lead on a 15th century piece about Joseph’s first inklings that his newborn son Jesus might indeed be special when the baby gets a cherry tree to lean down to them when Mary is about to collapse with hunger on the family’s travels out of Bethlehem. This is, strangely enough, the only Christmas carol the original Pentangle ever recorded (despite the fact that carols are, generally, among the oldest traditional music in existence in the Western world), although typically for the band their choice isn’t exactly common. The original (or the closest to the original we know of) ran to 12 verses and has Jesus still in his mother’s womb and an extended ending where an angel comes to Joseph in a dream and tells him that he is about to have the saviour of mankind for a son. The song features a lovely sing-songy melody closest in style in modern times to an advert (carols were in fact the adverts of Christianity in the centuries when most mass communications took place in churches and cathedrals) and features some of the best evidence on record of how closely attuned Pentagle guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn were with each other (the Rolling Stones often talk about their work as ‘the ancient art of weaving using guitars’ but its a line that suits Pentangle better still). Unfortunately there’s not much variety in this song – as there isn’t in most carols – which makes it somewhat difficult to digest for modern ears. Jacqui’s vocal is also strained to breaking point at times – perhaps the band might have done better to transpose it down a key or so? That said, there are some lovely – and completely unexpected – chord changes throughout this song that means ‘The Cherry Tree Carol’ doesn’t go entirely where you expect it to.

‘The Snows’ sees the welcome return of the sitar to the Pentangle sound for the first time since ‘The House Carpenter’ in 1969. That’s the highlight of a gentle song about the optimistic idea that winter is only passing, even if the snows often seem to be around forever. Bert gets to sing this again which brings out the melancholy rather than the joy in the song (as would have happened had Jacqui sang it, for instance) and in fact this is probably the only non-instrumental song by the original Pentangle on which Jacqui does not appear at all. She’s badly missed on another traditional song that never quite takes off (and it is a traditional song despite the original album label credit to Pentangle, dating back to the early 19th century) and rather slides by without really catching the ear. Interestingly, the Pentangle version of this carol differs quite a bit form the more common versions of this song (for example the second verse should end: ‘But when spring goes and winter blows my love she will be fain, for all her pride to follow me across the stormy main’ instead of which it runs ‘But when spring blows and winter goes my love then you'll be free, with all your pride and to follow me where it crossed the stormy sea’ while the third verse is entirely different and should run ‘And I've seen a woman's anger melt between the night and morn, so it's surely not a harder thing to melt a woman's scorn’ rather than the ‘Pentangle’ variation ‘And all the flowers in all the land so brightly they may be, And the snow it melts the soonest when my true love's for me’. It’s unknown why the band changed these lines and whether it was them who changed it or whether there might be an alternate translation of these lines. Either way, the melody of the song can also be heard with completely different lyrics as the even older Northumbrian folk song ‘My Love Is Newly Listed’. One of the weaker songs on the record, it is at least nice to hear the band stretching their musical palette so much here, with Renbourn stealing the show with his twin sitar and recorder playing.

‘High Germany’ is another first for Pentangle, a genuine battle song that was probably written during the ‘Seven Year War’ of 1756-63, a skirmish that should by rights be called ‘World War One’; although the casualties were fewer and was more about Empirical expansion than European treaties and alliances. Despite the longstanding skirmishes between England and Germany, here Germany are not the ‘enemy’ (as seen by the English writer’s eyes) but the backdrop for a war fought between the English and Dutch on the one hand and the French and Spanish on the other. The band do well with this perky little song, especially Terry Cox’s superb military drumming and the twin use of Bert on banjo and John on recorder to give this song an old-fashioned, military feel (Bert brought the song to the band after having played a solo banjo version of the song in his youth). Jacqui’s vocal is hard to hear (she’s not been treated well by whoever mixed this album) but she copes well with the short, snappy vocal that must have been a pain to sing (the song is heard at breakneck speed here). Interestingly Jacqui sings the song all the way through, despite the fact that it’s actually a question-and-answer song of the type the band usually spread between Jacqui and Bert (its basically the story of a 15th century Eastenders when ‘Billy’ has to leave ‘Polly’ to fight and then when he’s walking out the door – dum dum dum dum – she reveals that she’s pregnant and will have a baby waiting for him on his return). Not the best song on the album either, but it’s nice to hear Pentangle having a go at a traditional song that’s such a long way out of their usual comfort zone.

‘People On The Highway’ is one of only two original songs on this album but its easily up there with the best of Pentangle’s work, sounding completely at home with the textures and styles of the rest of the album. Mainly written by Bert, despite being credited to all five Pentangle members, it’s basically his ‘goodbye’ song to the band and how ‘it’s better to be moving than clinging to your past’. Despite a couple of verses making out that this is a romance that the narrator is walking out on, it’s clear that Bert is really talking about the band here, admitting that he’s ‘moving on’ not because he hates his past or has fallen out with the others but because he hears the call of something else pulling him on and that ‘if I stay, I’ll lose out’. The band were struggling by 1972, after three years’ worth of declining sales, some fairly scathing album reviews and a changing musical climate that had turned a semi-circle from the deep and intelligent folk of the late 60s to the electric empty pop of glam, so in context its hard not to sympathise with Bert’s views that the band had run its course. The last verse, about how ‘sunny days pass by and roll on un-noticed’ may well be a reference to Pentangle’s recording studios, where the band would work for several hours straight, unsure if it was day or night outside (although of course it’s also a metaphor for the better times Bert might have been having without the band). The irony, of course, is that songs like this one brought out the best in the band, accentuating all their musical strengths and in Bert and Jacqui’s shared sweet-and-sour vocals everything that made Pentangle special and unique. Bert was never a natural ‘star’ (have a look at our Bert Jansch tribute special for more) and hid from fame as much as he could, something that might explain the paranoia of the first couple of verses where ‘you just can’t get away’ and his desire to escape ‘to the mountains, going by the sea’. The best lines however are the wonderful philosophy of the second verse: ‘Life is made of living and dreams are made of sleeping’ i.e. I’ve been working too hard and have lost sight of what is real and important. Together with a catchy chorus (‘Got to move on, got to leave my troubles and worries behind, find a new home to rest my uneasy mind’) Bert comes up with one the band’s last great classic songs and signs off his association with the band for some 15 odd years with one of his greatest ever songs and one of Pentangle’s best group performances to boot.

‘Willy O’Winsbury’ is another traditional song, probably Scottish and dating from around 1775, although there’s dozens of differing versions of it doing the rounds by different bands that all seem to be different (it’s kind of the folk song equivalent of a 12” re-mix). Naturally being Pentangle the band don’t go for the obvious translation but a more obscure English version that is recorded at a languid, almost wistful pace that focuses more on the happy ending than the jealous skirmishes early in the song. The origin is a bit obscure, but may well be about Scottish King James V and his unusual courtship of French princess Madeliene de Valois, who he was betrothed to unseen but fell in love with anyway after spying on her to see what she looked like (although the stories differ; the folk song ends with the King annoyed at his daughter falling pregnant with a local man while he was off crusading). Interestingly most versions of this song have the local man named ‘Thomas O’Winsbury’ rather than Willy/Willie. By the way, this is the one song that close rivals Pentangle and Fairport Convention have in common, although Pentangle use this song’s traditional tune and Fairport recorded their song using the more modern (and common) version known as ‘Fause Foodrage’ (although guitarist Richard Thompson has recorded a solo version more like Pentangle’s as well). The result is lovely, with one of the slower tracks on the album given time to grow via a sensitive acoustic arrangement that gives Jacqui the chance to really shine amongst the twin acoustic guitars and Renbourn’s recorder (drummer Terry is missing from the line-up). However, this song does outstay it’s welcome a little bit: at nearly seven minutes it’s by far the longest song on the album and it’s a surprise that the band didn’t simply cut out a few verses as they do with most of the traditional songs on the record.

‘No Love Is Sorrow’ is my other favourite song on the record and while simpler than most of the other songs on the record is a prime example of how Pentangle can simply do this stuff better than anyone else. The song is one of only a handful that bassist Danny Thompson brought to the band (although like most Pentangle originals its credited to all five members) and makes the most out of the band’s qualities: a spooky, almost atonal opening from Thompson on double bass, crystal clear guitar work and Bert’s angular discordant vocal offset by the sheer prettiness of Jacqui’s part. The tension on this song is almost unbearable at times as this piece about a loved one who never notices the fact the narrator is in love with them seems to be rolling round the narrator’s head and trying to find a solution, hence the rolling, almost sea shanty style of the rhythm. The lyrics to this pretty song are very much in keeping with the traditional songs Pentangle more usually sing (‘I dearly love thee and not one another will know sweetness that lies in my breast’) and seem like a cry that could have come from any period and indeed has happened across centuries. What makes this arrangement work so well, though, is that Bert and Jacqui sing this song about a lack of communication more as a duel than a conversation, always at a tangent to each other and never in true harmony, really building the tension in the song. Together with the angular melody, that keeps plunging the song downwards as if the narrator is looking at his shoes, this is a remarkably apt and poignant recreation of grief and is given a truly chilling performance where every note seems to add to the atmosphere. Danny really should have written more songs for the band as, even more than Bert (who helped out a lot with the arrangement of the song) he really knew how to write to Pentangle’s strengths.

‘Jump Baby Jump’ is the third and final original song on the album, mainly written by Bert and John together, although again it sounds like it could date from any era. Again, the words and melody seem to be telling us different things, with a bright and breezy tune accompanying words that seem to be describing a suicide victim leaping from a great height. Things become clearer when you learn that the song was written by a drunken holiday the guitarists took to the Moher mountains in Ireland, where they looked down on the beauty of the view and wished they could fly down from their mountain top and see it at first hand. Like Bert’s other song on the album, ‘People On The Highway’, it also very much works as a ‘goodbye’ to the band, describing the exhilarating feeling of taking off and trying to ‘fly’ without any idea where your destination will be (‘Spread your wings out and float away’). The third verse develops the theme with the narrator holding his breath underwater and trying to swim like the fishes, desperate to join their world too. For all the song’s breezy confidence and (unusually for this album) upbeat major keys, there’s still plenty of warnings here, with the verses ending respectively ‘beware now of falling babe’ and ‘beware of drowning babe’. It’s as if Bert is trying to encourage his friends in the band to go out and explore new things without diving into them head first and losing all the advice and ideas they’ve learnt during their time in the band. Most fans regard this song as the low point on the album, but while far from the best song here I find the quiet acoustic guitar strumming and the gentle rolling melody of this song a delight and a welcome addition to an album noticeably low on group originals.

The album then closes with ‘Lady Of Carlisle’, surely one of the oldest folk songs that is known to exist and an obvious choice for the band to cover at some point (Jacqui had been trying to get the band to record this for some time after hearing Peggy Seeger play this on the banjo). The lady in the song is quite a nasty piece of work, demanding that her two suitors prove themselves to her by retrieving the fan she carelessly drops into a lion’s den (a curious idea, that, given that Carlisle would have been over-run with wolves rather than lions at the time of writing - perhaps they escaped from a nearby circus?! – although the ‘lion’s den’ is probably meant metaphorically). As a former resident of Carlisle myself (again see below) I can certainly vouch for the ‘nine impossible tasks set before breakfast’ aspect of this song! The band turn in a rather odd arrangement on this song, which is one of their barest with just a banjo, some electric guitar colour washes, an eccentric harmonica part from Bert and a single sawed note from Danny on double bass (plus Terry’s drums which finally kick in just before the end). Jacqui’s vocal is delicious and properly mixed for the first time on the record, although it still sits uncomfortably with this almost unplugged line-up of the band. Naturally given its long-standing credentials with the folk communities everyone has done this song at some point – including the Grateful Dead, as you’ll see below in this week’s top five – and Pentangle’s version isn’t one of the best, turning the song into something of a messy singalong rather than the epic majesty others have given it. I wish the band had slowed down the tempo a little and added more of their usual atmosphere to this song, which does deserve rather better from the band and is something of a disspointment when heard as the last track recorded by the original line-up. That said, ‘Lady Of Carlisle’is still a pretty good take on adding to the band’s palette of sounds even at this late stage and its intriguing to heart the harmonica slotting in so well to the band’s sound, which is unusually American and more like bluegrass than the folk the very English Pentangle usually recorded and might have paved the way for a whole new era for the band had they continued longer into the decade.

Overall, then, ‘Solomon’s Seal’ suffers from a lack of consistency, to be honest like all of Pentangle’s efforts apart from the excellent career high of ‘Basket Of Light’. But inconsistency is always easier to take from a band who are trying to do something different with every song and who, despite mainly recording traditional songs, teach us something new about the band with every arrangement by the band. Despite the fact that ‘Solomon’s Seal’ was received in 1972 as the last dying gasp of a tiring band I think ‘Seal’ is actually the best example of how many different directions Pentangle could travel in at once under the banner of ‘updating’ traditional folk sounds. Good as many albums by Pentangle’s contemporaries are (including those by Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention and The Strawbs) only Pentangle succeeds in my eyes (and ears) in making the 1960s sound like the natural evolution of a traditional folk form that goes back several centuries and truly sounds ‘timeless’, as enjoyable today as it would have sounded at the time. Recorded for a new label, with lots of new sounds, ‘Solomon’s Seal’ could have been the start of a whole new chapter for the band – and it’s not the album’s fault that it ends up simply being a cul-de-sac before the band reunite (with mixed success) fifteen or so years down the line.

It’s kind of the ‘Let It Be’ of the folk world this album – it could have really been something, representing a whole new beginning, but because of circumstances it ended up becoming an ‘ending’ and inevitably isn’t regarded as fondly by fans who never wanted their beloved band to end. It wasn’t much better regarded by the band either who watched this album flop spectacularly, had their contract with Warner Brothers quietly terminated (although it was more of a mutual decision with the band not to carry on) and then spent the next twenty years paying back the Warner advance their management had accidentally spent. In short there’s lots of reasons not to like this album (lack of original material, the traditional songs date back further, most collectors in years gone by probably paid a fortune for it or spent decades waiting to hear it, its a ‘farewell’), but if you come to it without any of that baggage what impresses you is how hard the band are trying to update their sound and how, for the most part, successful they are in that. Heard in context, with Bert’s passing last year sadly ending Pentangle’s fascinating journey so that we know it really is an ‘end’ in terms of all five original members together, then it sounds like a fine LP with traditional and contemporary sounds merging together to sound like a whole new future. In his hilarious sleevenotes, John Renbourn talks about finding the master-tapes for this album propping up his harmonium and admitting in typical understated humour that even though his instrument now leads to one side the sacrifice is ‘probably’ worth it on balance. To fans who spent years trying to track this holy grail of a record down, to those who thought they’d never get a complete picture of the band’s releases and those who, like me, think this album represents this band close to their peak then we are grateful indeed and think the sacrifice was most definitely ‘worth it’.



A Now Complete List Of Pentangle Related Articles At Alan’s Album Archives:







Surviving TV Appearances 1968-2000 and The Best Unreleased Recordings http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.nl/2016/09/pentangle-double-bill-surviving-tv.html






AAA Songs About Carlisle (News, Views and Music Top Five Issue 166)



Everyone has a spiritual home, even if they don’t actually live there. Mine is in a windy, rainy city where the weather is always awful but the people (usually aren’t), a city that’s been both English and Scottish during its troubled history and is near enough to both Wales and Ireland to have several people from all places mingling about it, giving it a Cosmopolitan feel where accents collide. Older than any other city (except possibly London), with more history in a 10 mile radius than whole counties, Carlisle remains the place where my heart lies, despite the atrocious weather, even if I don’t get to travel there as often as I’d like (if there’s one thing chronic fatigue doesn’t like its travel). Despite spending most of my life in the Midlands it’s the North that’s my home and always will be, wherever I actually live. If I can’t get there, then at least I can do the next best thing and listen to it – or at least these five AAA interpretations of it (with one slight twist because we were getting desperate). (How many of your hometowns have been mentioned in AAA songs? Drop us a line!):

The Monkees “Carlisle Wheeling” (recorded 1968, unreleased until ‘Missing Links One’ 1987)

No one is quite sure why this song is called – in its original title – ‘Carlisle Wheeling Effervescent Popsicle’ including the author himself. Mike Nesmith is renowned in Monkees circles for never including the title of his songs in the actual lyrics and this one is more impenetrable than most. A moody ballad about the narrator suddenly realising he’s been in love so long he’s forgotten to tell his lover that he really does treasure here, the original unreleased band version is a quick jaunt and the finished Nesmith solo version (released under the title ‘Conversations’ on second album ‘Loose Salute’) is a slow melodrama. Like virtually every place name that originated in England, there is an American equivalent of Carlisle (in Pennsylvania) which is probably where the wool-hatted Texan got the name from. Sweet song though, which would have made a fine addition to the Monkees’ seventh LP ‘Instant Replay’ (for which it was recorded). Relevance: I’ve never been to the American Carlisle, so for all I know this type of wordy philosophising goes on all the time; as for the Uk version its only true of wordy English lectures!

Pentangle “Lady Of Carlisle” (‘Solomon’s Seal’ 1972)

As revealed above, this is Pentangle’s updated version of one of England’s oldest folk songs (dating from a time when, unusually, Carlisle was part of England – for much of its history it’s been Scottish). A noble lady of the land throws down the challenge that if anyone wishes to claim her hand in marriage they will have to get it back. Unfortunately for the two would-be suitors who come forward the mysterious unseen woman has thrown her glove into a den of lions and, unsurprisingly, neither are that quick to claim it back. The song dates back at least as far as the 13th century, but seems to have been an ‘old’ song even then (just possibly not one that was ever written down before) and the real writers are lost in time. What we do know is that there never were any lions in Carlisle (wolves yes, lions no) so there’s more than a bit of imagination going on here! Later on this list the Grateful Dead will do their own twist on the song...Relevancy: In terms of being set impossible tasks and then getting told off for not doing them, this folk song is spot-on! I never did get to see any lions though (mongooses yes, lions no...)

Paul McCartney and Wings “Helen Wheels” (Single 1973, plus US copies of ‘Band On The Run’)

McCartney’s great ‘driving song’ is named after the nickname he gave to his landrover (‘Hell On Wheels..’, get it?!) and probably the closest he could get to what he really wanted to sing and still make it past the 1973 censors. Its a song that namechecks lots of towns and cities in the UK and was written to give Macca’s homeland their own ‘Route 66’, though it has to be said places like ‘Birmingham, Midlands’ don’t have the same magical ring as ‘Birmingham, Alabama’. The song may well have been started as early as Wing’s 1972 tour when they really did drive aimlessly up and down motorways, stopping off at places that sounded exotic and asking local universities and colleges if they could play (‘Ashby-De-La-Zouche’ is a town that Macca remembers fondly in ‘Wingspan’, with the band debating what this exotic land would be like – and being appalled at how dirty and grey it was when they got there). Carlisle is one of those places mentioned in the second verse (‘Carlisle city never looked so pretty...and the ghetto freeway’s fast’). Relevancy: The first half’s accurate (especially if you see the city at night from my favourite walking post up a giant hill in the middle of the country overlooking the busy town centre), but the second half isn’t (as all the frustrated lorry drivers beeping outside my halls of residence will attest). Perhaps it’s changed since Wings’ day.

Grateful Dead “Terrapin Station” (‘Terrapin Station’ 1977)

A 22 minute epic based on the folk song ‘Lady Of Carlisle’, but re-written by lyricist Bob Hunter to take on a more symbolic, whimsical quality. As far as I know neither Hunter nor music-writer Jerry Garcia ever played at the English Carlisle, which might well be why they created such a mystical, intriguing land full of hidden dangers and life tasks to be fulfilled. I never saw maidens as lovely as the one in the song, either, although quite a few of them acted like the Royals in this story (perhaps the pair were thinking of the Carlisle in Pennsylvania again?!) The result is the last truly great Grateful Dead song, sucking you in from Bob’s invocation to the muse to let his inspiration flow, to the enjoyable percussion interlude ‘at a siding’. The differences are that there aren’t two soldier suitors but one sailor, the events all happened long ago as a memory The ‘Terrapin’, by the way, isn’t a real station (although Carlisle railway station was one of the first ever built, it’s never had a name except ‘Carlisle’) but a reference to the old folklore that the Earth is balanced precariously on the back of a terrapin (Terry Pratchett didn’t get the idea out of thin air, you know!)The only problem is the album’s peculiar production, which insists on plastering the band with a choir and strings. Relevancy: ‘Sullen wings of fortune beat like rain’ – I take it back, somehow Hunter and Garcia must have travelled to ‘our’ Carlisle because this sentence is perfect – as are the idea of an unrelenting quest taking its pursuers ‘to hell’ without reward. I can’t figure out if it’s the end or beginning either.

Mark Knopfler “Border Reiver” (‘Get Lucky’ 2009)

There isn’t an actual mention of Carlisle in this song from Mark’s last-but-one album, but that’s who he’s singing about – the border reivers were a group of bandits who lived on both sides of the borders between England and Scotland and lived off what they could find (the word ‘reiver’ means ‘to rob’). Frankly, though, I think these outlaws get a bad press: after all, with their main city changing hands every five minutes I’d have trouble knowing which Royal (English or Scots) to pledge my allegiance to and would be less than thrilled at the draconian laws handed down to the peasants of the day which were supposed to take precedence over clan loyalty (think of Braveheart – but the real story, not the godawful Mel Gibson film where most of the facts are wrong). Knopfler’s dark tale is basically a re-write of Dire Straits’ own ‘Romeo and Juliet’, with a Scots lad in love with a girl across the borders in ‘Albion’ (ie England), a thief ‘stealing time’ because all he wants is to survive a while longer. The reference to ‘1969’ is interesting, especially in the context of what must be Mark’s most nostalgic album (full of references to his teenage years that decade) – are we all struggling to survive, taking what we need to get by even now? Relevancy: ‘The ministry don’t worry me, my paperwork’s alright’ and ‘She’s not too cold in Winter but she cooks me in the heat’ – this is clearly a work of
fiction, although as a Newcastle lad Mark is probably the only person on this list who did know the borderlands before writing his song (he’s played Carlisle’s Sands Centre arts theatre a few times too!)


A NOW COMPLETE List Of Top Five/Top Ten/TOP TWENTY  Entries 2008-2019
1) Chronic Fatigue songs http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/news-views-and-music-issue-1-top-five.html

2) Songs For The Face Of Bo
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-issue-2-top-five.html

3) Credit Crunch Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-issue-3-top-five.html

4) Songs For The Autumn
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-issue-4-top-five.html

5) National Wombat Week
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-top-five-national.html

6) AAA Box Sets
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-issue-6-top-five.html

7) Virus Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/news-views-and-music-issue-7-top-five.html

8) Worst AAA-Related DVDs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/news-views-and-music-issu-8-top-five.html

9) Self-Punctuating Superstar Classics
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/news-views-and-music-issue-9-top-five.html

10) Ways To Know You Have Turned Into A Collector
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/news-views-and-music-issue-9-top-five.html

11) Political Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/news-views-and-music-issue-11-top-five.html

12) Totally Bonkers Concept Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/news-views-and-music-top-five-totally.html

13) Celebrating 40 Years Of The Beatles' White Album
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/top-five-issue-13-40-years-of-beatles.html

14) Still Celebrating 40 Years Of The Beatles' White Album
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/news-views-and-music-issue-14-top-five.html

15) AAA Existential Questions
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/news-views-and-music-issue-15-top-five.html

16) Releases Of The Year 2008
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/news-views-and-music-issue-16-top-five.html

17) Top AAA Xmas Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/news-views-and-music-issue-17-top-five.html

18) Notable AAA Gigs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/01/news-views-and-music-issue-19-top-five.html

19) All things '20' related for our 20th issue
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/news-views-and-music-issue-20-aaa-songs.html

20) Romantic odes for Valentine's Day
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/news-views-and-music-issue-22-top-five.html

21) Hollies B sides
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/news-views-and-music-issue-23-top-five.html

22) 'Other' BBC Session Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/news-views-and-music-issue-24-top-five.html

23) Beach Boys Rarities Still Not Available On CD
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/news-views-and-music-issue-25-top-five.html

24) Songs John, Paul and George wrote for Ringo's solo albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/news-views-and-music-issue-26-top-five.html

25) 5 of the Best Rock 'n' Roll Tracks From The Pre-Beatles Era
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/news-views-and-music-issue-27-top-five.html

26) AAA Autobiographies
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/news-views-and-music-issue-28-top-five.html

27) Rolling Stones B-sides
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/news-views-and-music-issue-29-top-five.html

28) Beatles B-Sides
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-30-top-five.html

29) The lllloooonnngggeesssttt AAA songs of all time
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-31-top-five.html

30) Kinks B-Sides
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-32-top-five.html

31) Abandoned CSNY projects 'wasted on the way'
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-33-top-five.html

32) Best AAA Rarities and Outtakes Sets
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/06/news-views-and-music-issue-34-top-five.html

33) News We've Missed While We've Been Away
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/news-views-and-music-issue-35-top-five.html

34) Birthday Songs for our 1st Anniversary
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/news-views-and-music-issue-37-top-five.html

35) Brightest Album Covers
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/news-views-and-music-issue-37-top-five.html

36) Biggest Recorded Arguments
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/news-views-and-music-issue-38-top-five.html

37) Songs About Superheroes
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-39-top-five.html

38) AAA TV Networks That Should Exist
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-40-top-five.html

39) AAA Woodtsock Moments
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-41-top-five.html

40) Top Moments Of The Past Year As Voted For By Readers
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-42-top-five.html

41) Music Segues
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/news-views-and-music-issue-43-top-five.html

42) AAA Foreign Language Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/news-views-and-music-issue-44-top-five.html

43) 'Other' Groups In Need Of Re-Mastering
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/news-views-and-music-issue-45-top-five.html

44) The Kinks Preservation Rock Opera - Was It Really About The Forthcoming UK General Election?
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/news-views-and-music-issue-46-top-five.html

45) Mono and Stereo Mixes - Biggest Differences
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/news-views-and-music-issue-47-top-five.html

46) Weirdest Things To Do When A Band Member Leaves
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/nerws-views-and-music-issue-48-top-five.html

47) Video Clips Exclusive To Youtube (#1)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/news-views-and-music-issue-49-top-five.html

48) Top AAA Releases Of 2009
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/news-views-and-music-issue-50-top-five.html

49) Songs About Trains
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/news-views-and-music-issue-51-top-five.html

50) Songs about Winter
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/news-views-and-music-issue-52-top-five.html

51) Songs about astrology plus horoscopes for selected AAA members
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/news-views-and-music-issue-53-top-five.html

52) The Worst Five Groups Ever!
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/news-views-and-music-issue-54-top-five.html

53) The Most Over-Rated AAA Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/news-views-and-music-issue-56-top-five.html

54) Top AAA Rarities Exclusive To EPs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/news-views-and-music-issue-57-top-five.html

55) Random Recent Purchases (#1)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/news-views-and-music-issue-58-top-five.html

56) AAA Party Political Slogans
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/news-views-and-music-issue-60-top-five.html

57) Songs To Celebrate 'Rock Sunday'
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/news-views-and-music-issue-61-top-five_21.html

58) Strange But True (?) AAA Ghost Stories
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/news-views-and-music-issue-61-top-five.html

59) AAA Artists In Song
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/news-views-and-music-issue-63-top-five.html

60) Songs About Dogs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/news-views-and-music-issue-65-top-five.html

61) Sunshiney Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/news-views-and-music-issue-67-top-five.html

62) The AAA Staff Play Their Own Version Of Monoploy/Mornington Crescent!
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/news-views-and-music-issue-68-top-forty.html

63) What 'Other' British Invasion DVDs We'd Like To See
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/news-views-and-music-issue-69-top-five.html

64) What We Want To Place In Our AAA Time Capsule
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/news-views-and-music-issue-70-top-five.html

65) AAA Conspiracy Theroies
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/news-views-and-music-issue-72-top-ten.html

66) Weirdest Things To Do Before - And After - Becoming A Star
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/news-views-and-music-top-ten-aaa-stars.html

67) Songs To Tweet To
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/news-views-and-music-issue-74-top-five.html

68) Greatest Ever AAA Solos
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/news-views-and-music-issue-75-top-ten.html

69) John Lennon Musical Tributes
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/news-views-and-music-issue-77-top-five.html

70) Songs For Halloween
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/news-views-and-music-issue-78-top-five.html

71) Earliest Examples Of Psychedelia
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/news-views-and-music-issue-79-top-five.html

72) Purely Instrumental Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/news-views-and-music-issue-81-top-five.html

73) AAA Utopias

74) AAA Imaginary Bands
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/news-views-and-music-issue-82-top-five.html

75) Unexpected AAA Cover Versions
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/news-views-and-music-issue-83-top-five.html

76) Top Releases of 2010
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/news-views-and-music-issue-84-top-five.html

77) Songs About Snow
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/news-views-and-music-issue-85-top-five.html

78) Predictions For 2011
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011_01_02_archive.html

79) AAA Fugitives

80) AAA Home Towns
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/news-views-and-music-issue-88-home.html

81) The Biggest Non-Musical Influences On The 1960s
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/news-views-and-music-issue-89-top-five.html

82) AAA Groups Covering Other AAA Groups
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/news-views-and-music-issue-90-top.html

83) Strange Censorship Decisions
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/news-views-and-music-issue-91-top-ten.html

84) AAA Albums Still Unreleased on CD
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/news-views-and-music-issue-92-top-five.html

85) Random Recent Purchases (#2)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/news-views-and-music-issue-93-top-ten.html

86) Top AAA Music Videos
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/news-views-and-music-issue-94-top-ten.html

87) 30 Day Facebook Music Challenge
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/news-views-and-music-issue-95-top.html

88) AAA Documentaries
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/news-views-and-music-top-five-aaa.html

89) Unfinished and 'Lost' AAA Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/news-views-and-music-issue-97-top-ten.html

90) Strangest AAA Album Covers
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/newsa-views-and-music-issue-98-top-ten.html

91) AAA Performers Live From Mars (!)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/news-views-and-music-issue-99-top-ten.html

92) Songs Including The Number '100' for our 100th Issue
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/news-views-and-music-issue-100-top-five.html

93) Most Songs Recorded In A Single Day
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/news-views-and-music-issue-101-top-five.html

94) Most Revealing AAA Interviews
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/news-views-and-music-issue-102-top-five.html

95) Top 10 Pre-Fame Recordings
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/news-views-and-music-issue-103-top-ten.html

96) The Shortest And Longest AAA Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-views-and-music-issue-104-top-ten.html


97) The AAA Allstars Ultimate Band Line-Up
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-views-and-music-issue-105-top.html

98) Top Songs About Sports
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-views-and-music-issue-106-top-ten.html

99) AAA Conversations With God
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-views-and-music-issue-107-top-ten.html

100) AAA Managers: The Good, The Bad and the Financially Ugly
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/news-views-and-music-issue-108-top-ten.html

101) Unexpected AAA Cameos
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/news-views-and-music-issue-109-top-ten.html

102) AAA Words You can Type Into A Caluclator
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/news-views-and-music-issue-110-top-five.html

103) AAA Court Cases
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/news-views-and-music-issue-111-top-five.html

104) Postmodern Songs About Songwriting
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/news-views-and-music-issue-112-top-five.html

105) Biggest Stylistic Leaps Between Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/news-views-and-music-issue-113-top-ten.html

106) 20 Reasons Why Cameron Should Go!
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/news-views-and-music-issue-114-top.html

107) The AAA Pun-Filled Cookbook
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-115-top-five.html

108) Classic Debut Releases
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-116-top-five.html

109) Five Uses Of Bird Sound Effects
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-118-top-five.html

110) AAA Classic Youtube Clips Part #1
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-119-top.html

111) Part #2
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/news-views-and-music-issue-120-top.html

112) Part #3
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/news-views-and-music-issue-121-top.html

113) AAA Facts You Might Not Know
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/news-views-and-music-issue-122-top-ten.html

114) The 20 Rarest AAA Records
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/news-views-and-music-issue-123-top.html

115) AAA Instrumental Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011_12_04_archive.html

116) Musical Tarot
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/news-views-and-music-issue-125-top-23-i.html

117) Christmas Carols
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011_12_18_archive.html

118) Top AAA Releases Of 2011
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011_12_25_archive.html

119) AAA Bands In The Beano/The Dandy
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/news-views-and-music-issue-128-top-five.html

120) Top 20 Guitarists #1
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/news-views-and-music-issue-129-top-ten.html

121) #2
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_01_15_archive.html

122) 'Shorty' Nomination Award Questionairre
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_01_22_archive.html

123) Top Best-Selling AAA Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_01_29_archive.html

124) AAA Songs Featuring Bagpipes

125) A (Hopefully) Complete List Of AAA Musicians On Twitter
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_02_19_archive.html

126) Beatles Albums That Might Have Been 1970-74 and 1980
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_02_26_archive.html

127) DVD/Computer Games We've Just Invented
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_03_11_archive.html

128) The AAA Albums With The Most Weeks At #1 in the UK
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_03_18_archive.html

129) The AAA Singles With The Most Weeks At #1 in the UK
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_03_25_archive.html

130) Lyric Competition (Questions)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_04_15_archive.html

131) Top Crooning Classics
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_04_22_archive.html

132) Funeral Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/news-views-and-music-issue-142-top-five.html

133) AAA Songs For When Your Phone Is On Hold
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/news-views-and-music-issue-143-top-five.html

134) Random Recent Purchases (#3)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/news-views-and-music-issue-144-top-five.html

135) Lyric Competition (Answers)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/news-views-and-music-issue-146-top.html http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/news-views-and-music-issue-145-top-five.html

136) Bee Gees Songs/AAA Goes Disco!
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/news-views-and-music-issue-147-top-five.html

137) The Best AAA Sleevenotes (And Worst)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/news-views-and-music-issue-148-top-ten.html

138) A Short Precise Of The Years 1962-70
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/news-views-and-music-149-top-eight.html

139) More Wacky AAA-Related Films And Their Soundtracks
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/top-five-for-news-views-and-music-150.html

140) AAA Appearances On Desert Island Discs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/top-eight-aaa-desert-island-discs.html

141) Songs Exclusive To Live Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/news-views-and-music-issue-153-top-10.html

142) More AAA Songs About Armageddon
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/aaa-armageddon-songsalbums-top-5-for.html

What difference does a name make? Arguably not much if you’re already a collector of a certain group, for whom the names on the album sleeves just...

This week’s top ten honours the humble motor car. The death trap on wheels, the metaphor for freedom, the put-down of capitalism, a source of...

This week we’re going to have a look at the 10 AAA singles that spent the most weeks at number on the American chart ‘Billboard’ – and it makes for...

Following on from last issue’s study of the American Billboard charts, here’s a look at which AAA albums spent the most weeks on the chart. The...

There are many dying arts in our modern world: incorruptible politicians, faith that things are going to get better and the ability to make decent...

This week we’ve decided to dedicate our top ten to those unsung heroes of music, the session musicians, whose playing often brings AAA artists (and...

Naturally we hold our AAA bands in high esteem in these articles: after all, without their good taste, intelligence and humanity we’d have nothing to...

What do you do when you’ve left a multi-million selling band and yet you still feel the pull of the road and the tours and the playing to audiences...

‘The ATOS Song’ (You’re Not Fit To Live)’ (Mini-Review) Dear readers, we don’t often feature reviews of singles over albums or musicians who aren’t...

In honour of this week’s review of an album released to cash in on a movie soundtrack (only one of these songs actually appears in ‘Easy Rider’...and...

Hic! Everyone raise a glass to the rock stars of the past and to this week’s feature...songs about alcolholic beverages! Yes that’s right, everything...

154) The human singing voice carries with it a vast array of emotions, thoughts that cannot be expressed in any other way except opening the lungs and...

Everyone has a spiritual home, even if they don’t actually live there. Mine is in a windy, rainy city where the weather is always awful but the...

Having a family does funny things to some musicians, as we’ve already seen in this week’s review (surely the only AAA album actually written around...

Some artists just have no idea what their best work really is. One thing that amazes me as a collector is how consistently excellent many of the...

159) A (Not That) Short Guide To The 15 Best Non-AAA Bands http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/a-not-that-short-guide-to-15-of-best.html%20%0d160

160) The Greatest AAA Drum Solos (Or Near Solos!) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-greatest-aaa-drum-solos-or-near.html%20%0d161

161) AAA Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame Acceptance Speeches http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/aaa-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame.html%20%0d162

162) AAA Re-Recordings Of Past Songs http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/aaa-re-recordings-of-past-songs-news.html%20%0d163

163) A Coalition Christmas (A Fairy Tale) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/a-coalition-christmas-news-views-and.html%20%0d164

164) AAA Songs About Islands http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/aaa-songs-about-islands-news-views-and.html%20%0d165

165) The AAA Review Of The Year 2012 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-aaa-review-of-year-2012-news-views.html



166) The Best AAA Concerts I Attended
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-best-aaa-concerts-i-attended-news.html

167) Tributes To The 10 AAA Stars Who Died The Youngest http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/tributes-to-10-aaa-stars-who-died.html



168) The First 10 AAA Songs Listed Alphabetically
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-first-10-aaa-songs-if-listed.html


171) The 10 Best Songs From The Psychedelia Box-Sets ‘Nuggets’ and ‘Nuggets Two’ http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/the-best-of-two-nuggets-psychedelia.html%20%0d172

172) The 20 Most Common Girl’s Names In AAA Song Titles (With Definitions) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/girls-names-in-aaa-song-titles-from.html 








180) First Recordings By Future AAA Stars http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/first-





185) A Tribute To Storm Thorgerson Via The Five AAA Bands He Worked With http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/a-tribute-to-hipgnosis-via-five-aaa.html



188) Surprise! Celebrating 300 Album Reviews With The Biggest 'Surprises' Of The Past Five Years Of Alan's Album Archives! http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/celebrating-300-album-reviews-10.html


190) Comparatively Obscure First Compositions By AAA Stars http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/comparatively-obscure-debut.html



193) Evolution Of A Band: Comparing First Lyric With Last Lyric: http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/evolution-of-band-comparing-1st-lyric.html







200) The Monkees In Relation To Postmodernism (University Dissertation) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/university-dissertation-monkees-in.html


202) Carly Simon's 'You're So Vain': Was It About One Of The AAA Crew? http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/carly-simons-youre-so-vain-was-it-about.html















217) AAA 'Christmas Presents' we'd most like to have next year http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/aaa-christmas-presents-wed-most-like-to.html




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

252) Guest Post: ‘The Skids – Joy’ (1981) by Kenny Brown  https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/guest-post-skids-joy-1981.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