Posts Tagged ‘Decca Records’

The ROLLING STONES – ” Between The Buttons ” Released 20th January 1967

Posted: January 20, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Rolling Stones Between The Buttons album cover 820

1967 was a highly successful year for The Rolling Stones. It started with the release of “Between The Buttons” and ended with the stylistic about-turn of “Their Satanic Majesties Request”. Released on Decca Records, Between The Buttons came out first in the UK, on 20th January 1967, with a revised US edition following on 11th February.

Between The Buttons’ title came about by chance, following an off-the-cuff remark made by producer Andrew Loog Oldham to drummer Charlie Watts, who was doing some sketches for the artwork. Watts asked what they were going to call the album and Oldham used a euphemism for “undecided”. “Andrew told me to do the drawings for the LP and he told me the title was ‘between the buttons’,” Watts told Melody Maker “I thought he meant the title was Between The Buttons, so it stayed with it.”

Some of the album was recorded in August 1966 with Dave Hassinger at RCA Studios in Hollywood – the last session to be recorded in what had been the band’s “hit factory” – before being completed in London at the newly-opened Olympic Sound Studios in November that year. Some of the tracks were started in America and finished in England’s capitol. The Stones were fresher by the time they were recording back home, having taken a break from touring. “Between The Buttons” was the first time we took a breath and distanced ourselves a little from the madness of touring and all,” recalled guitarist Keith Richards. “So in a way, to us it felt like a bit of a new beginning… plus, everyone was stoned out of their brains.”

“Between the Buttons” was The Rolling Stones’ first album since April 1966’s Aftermath and it became their fifth UK studio album. It remains one of the Stones’ less well-known records, however, which is a pity as it contains some strong songs.

Besides the five band members – Mick Jagger, who took lead vocals on all tracks and also played the tambourine and harmonica, was joined by Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman and Watts – there were several guest musicians. Ian Stewart plays piano and organ, and Nicky Hopkins plays piano, as does Jack Nitzsche. The track ‘Connection’ was performed live at the London Palladium the week after the album came out and was featured in the Martin Scorsese documentary Shine A Light, in 2008.

By late 1966, recording technology was allowing for greater experimentation, and though every track on Between The Buttons is credited to Jagger and Richards, there are certainly very different styles of music and song writing to be heard on the album. ‘Yesterday’s Papers’ has the distinction of being the first song to be written solely by Jagger and features Nitzsche on harpsichord. On ‘Something Happened to Me Yesterday’, the multi-talented Jones plays saxophone, trombone and clarinet.

Two tracks were exclusive to the UK album version. The first was the gentle waltz ‘Back Street Girl’, written by Richards and Jagger. In an interview with Jagger in Rolling Stone magazine, in 1968, the singer said it was his favourite song on the album. Jones showed some of his jazz leanings on this track: the musician, who was such an admirer of the jazz saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley that he named his son after him, demonstrated that he had imbued some of the influences of Milt Jackson in his vibraphone playing. The accordion playing was by Nick De Caro.

The second UK-only song on the album was ‘Please Go Home’, which was based on a Bo Diddley-style beat. It was later released in America on the compilation album Flowers.

“Trouble In Mind (Brian Jones)” A fun outtake from the “Between the Buttons” sessions (November 8th – 26th 1966: London, Olympic Sound Studios.). Great piano work from Ian Stewart and a multi-instrument player Brian Jones playing the kazoo’s.

The US version of “Between The Buttons” was the band’s seventh studio release stateside, and it stamped its own individuality with the choice of a new opening song. The album started with ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together’, a song co-written by Jagger and Richards, and which became a favourite of David Bowie’s. It had been released as a double-A-side single in the UK in January 1967, paired with ‘Ruby Tuesday’, which was also added to the US track list.

The UK and US versions of “Between The Buttons” shared the songs ‘Yesterday’s Papers’, ‘Connection’, ‘She Smiled Sweetly’, ‘Cool, Calm And Collected’, ‘My Obsession’, ‘All Sold Out’, ‘Who’s Been Sleeping Here’, ‘Complicated’, ‘Miss Amanda Jones’ and ‘Something Happened To Me Yesterday’.

Billboard reviewed the US album favourably in February 1967. “Every LP by the Stones has been a hot chart item, and this latest collection will be no exception,” they wrote. “Their hard-driving beat is evident throughout, and their singles hits ‘Ruby Tuesday’ and ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together’ are included adding immediate sales appeal. ‘Miss Amanda Jones’ and ‘Cool, Calm And Collected’ are outstanding in this winning package.” Between The Buttons reached No.2 in the album charts in the US, one place higher than in the UK.

The album artwork features cartoons and drawings by Charlie Watts, and the cover features a photograph taken by Gered Mankowitz in mid-November 1966, following an all-night recording session at Olympic Sound Studios. The band went to Primrose Hill park, in north London, just after dawn, arriving in a Rolls Royce. Mankowitz said the photograph, which he made deliberately bleary by spreading Vaseline on his lens, captured “the ethereal, druggy feel of the time”, adding, “There was this well-known London character called Maxie – a sort of prototype hippie – just standing on his own playing the flute. Mick walked up to him and offered him a joint and his only response was, ‘Ah, breakfast!’”

JOHN MAYALL with ERIC CLAPTON & THE BLUESBREAKERS – ” Blues Breakers ” The Beano Album

Posted: November 4, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers w Eric Clapton

1966 – an age ago in football terms, but still a ridiculous year for music. The Kinks were blazing on a sunny afternoon while The Rolling Stones were painting it black, Dylan was having Visions Of Johanna, Otis Redding was writing the Dictionary Of Soul… The Beatles were reminding us Tomorrow Never Knows, while The Beach Boys were doing God Only Knows. Somewhere in amongst this tremendous crop of records, a fanatical 21-year-old guitarist who had turned his back on chart success with The Yardbirds a year earlier returned to express his heavily amplified love for the blues – and in the process, make an all-time-classic guitar album.

The band Eric Clapton joined in April of 1965, was led by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist John Mayall, had an ever-revolving cast and eventually, over 100 different line-ups performed under the Bluesbreakers moniker. Eric actually joined twice – he departed the Bluesbreakers in August to tour Greece with a band called The Glands before returning to the fold in November – but by March 1966, the band were ready to record and headed to Decca Studios with producer Mike Vernon.

Having moved on from his Yardbirds’ pairing of Telecaster through a Vox, Clapton instead turned to a 1960 Les Paul Standard through a Marshall Model 1962 2×12 combo, both turned up to full with the mic placed two feet from the amp, a Dallas Rangemaster treble booster and a blanket placed over the whole shebang. Clapton said he’d come across the sound accidentally, when trying to emulate Freddie King: “I would use the bridge pickup with all of the bass turned up, so the sound was very thick and on the edge of distortion. I also always used amps that would overload. Everything was on full and overloading” (though photos from the sessions show the Les Paul in middle position, too, and there are a variety of distinct tones on the record, implying Clapton varied his amp gain and treble to suit).

This pairing shook the studio to its foundations and the guitar world to its core for decades to come, and the ‘Beano’ Les Paul – stolen during rehearsals for Cream in 1966 – has become one of the guitar world’s Holy Grail instruments, with its performance on this record possibly even single-handedly saving the model itself from extinction.

But knowing what tone caps, neck profile, humbucker covers, amp settings, issue of The Beano he was holding on the cover or the length of Eric’s sideburns won’t get you close to the real essential ingredient behind all of the mythology: Clapton’s playing. Blending major and minor, unison bends and double stops, sustaining notes and feedback, the album’s solos were all recorded live (except for Stepping Out) and are packed with endless creativity, delivered with a perfect mix of edgy ferocity and fastidious precision. So if you want to improve your electric-blues phrasing and don’t know them already, it really is time to re-listen and learn the key licks…

Otis Rush’s swung minor blues single “All Your Love (I Miss Loving)” from 1958 featured not one but two timeless guitar figures: the uppercut single-finger slide up the E string to announce its main lick and the heavily vibrato’d three-finger A minor triad arpeggio at the beginning of the solo. Clapton reproduces both faithfully, before breaking into a strident solo that shows off the power and sustain of his newfound sound.

Eric was also in thrall to the fleet-fingered melodic charm of Freddie King and the cover of his “Hide Away” trades some of the bite of King’s staccato licks to instead emphasise the dynamic range of his Les Paul/Marshall combo. It’s a masterclass from start to finish, but if you only steal one thing, make it the looped major-key bends in the break at 1:30.

The John Mayall original “Have You Heard” may be sweetened by its Buddy Guy-influenced vocal falsetto, Hammond and horns, but its guitar solo is pure evil. Studio needles in the red, everything on full, at 3:25 a frantic Clapton rinses every squeal, slide, bend and drop of emotion out of his six strings in what, to this day, remains a career-high solo.

Finally, the Bluesbreakers’ high-octane reworking of Memphis Slim’s 1959 piano-blues instrumental “Steppin’ Out” (featuring a string-scraping solo by Matt ‘Guitar’ Murphy) not only has one of the most satisfying silences in the blues (2:04), it also has one of its most exquisite examples of feedback (2:22). But the lick to learn is the trio of expressive, lightning-fast slides descending along the G string at 0:17: a subtle but expressive touch that shows Clapton’s playing was on a different level to everyone else at the time.

The Beano union was intense but short lived and when Eric Clapton saw Buddy Guy’s trio play live, he left to form a new ‘supergroup’ with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce, both of whom had previously played with Mayall. In December of the same year, when Cream released Fresh Cream, the world saw the guitarist who had burnished his reputation on the Beano album’s amped-up Chicago blues undergo another metamorphosis, launching his talent for extended improvisation into the realms of psychedelia.

Just as Clapton’s Yardbirds exit had paved the way for Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, his departure for Cream opened the door for John Mayall to showcase the talents of Mick Taylor and Peter Green – clearly, you could look under a rock in the mid 60s and find innovative guitarists teeming and clambering over one another.

But the Beano album is the mother lode of blues-rock guitar, and without its influence, a legion of guitarists – among them Peter Green, Gary Moore, Jeff Beck, Eddie Van Halen, Billy Gibbons, Joe Bonamassa, John Mayer, Stevie Ray Vaughan, even Hendrix – may have sounded quite different.

The band:

  • John Mayall, vocals, piano, organ, harmonica
  • Eric Clapton, guitar, vocals
  • John McVie, bass
  • Hughie Flint, drums
  • John Almond, sax
  • Alan Skidmore, tenor sax
  • Dennis Healey, trumpet
  • Gus Dudgeon, engineering

Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton

JOHN MAYALL – ” The First Generation 1965-1974 ” Box Set

Posted: October 31, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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John Mayall’s The First Generation 1965-1974 is an enormous 35CD box set that documents the early career of ‘The Godfather of British Blues’ with remastered studio albums, unreleased BBC recordings, previously unheard live gigs and more.

Featuring Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Harvey Mandel, Blue Mitchell, Jon Mark and many more outstanding musicians, the 35 discs in this mammoth package include three CD singles and eight previously unreleased discs, alongside newly remastered versions of the original Decca & Polydor albums.

Not for nothing did John Mayall earn the moniker ‘The Godfather of British Blues’. For a short but compelling time in the ‘60s and ‘70s he recognised raw talent when he saw it, he took it in, he nurtured it, and everyone thrived and benefitted as the result. Many of the best musicians of the period passed through the hallowed ranks of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, and all are on show here in a stunning set crammed with musical highlights.

For a short but compelling time in the ’60s and ’70s John Mayall recognised raw talent, took it in, nurtured it, and everyone thrived and benefitted as a result. Many of the best musicians of the period passed through the hallowed ranks of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. All are on show here in a stunning set crammed with musical highlights.

The unreleased concerts include Windsor 1967, Gothenburg 1968, Berlin 1969 and San Francisco 1970 and the 28 unreleased BBC tracks feature none other than Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor!

Strictly limited to 5,000 copies worldwide this set comes with a 168-page hardcover book with many rare photos and images of memorabilia and a full gig listing for the era, a fan club book of letters and correspondence, two replica posters (Ten Years Are Gone and 1968 tour poster), a replica press pack for John Mayall Plays John Mayall and a photograph  individually signed by John Mayall himself (who is thankfully still with us at the ripe old age of 86). The First Generation 1965-1974 is available to pre-order only via two retailers in the UK and the SDE shop is one of them.

There are box sets and then there are BOX SETS. John Mayall’s ‘The First Generation 1965-1974 set sits firmly in the latter category, being substantial both in the artefacts contained within and the superb music it encompasses.

It will be released on 29 January 2021 on the Madfish

SHIRLEY COLLINS & DAVY GRAHAM – ” Folk Roots, New Routes ” Reissue Record Store Day 2020

Posted: June 5, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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In 1964, still bruised after turning down The Beatles, Decca Records released an album by the woman who helped make the discovery of blues musician Mississippi Fred McDowell, whose music she had been discovered in Tennessee in the late 1950s and recorded McDowell for the masses: 29-year-old Sussex folk singer Shirley Collins.

Collins may not have looked like much of a rebel on the cover of that 1964 album, but she was. Five years earlier, she had crossed the Atlantic alone to visit prisons and remote Appalachian communities, meeting there with folklorist Alan Lomax to collect folk songs.

Collins’ 1964 album, Folk Roots, New Routes, is an uncompromising work that spearheaded innovation in the middle of the folk music revival. It set a template for all the folk-rock that followed it, and inspired 21st century psych-folk decades later. Bands like Pentangle and Fairport Convention would have been very different without her, while Will Oldham, Blur’s Graham Coxon and Angel Olsen are among the contemporary fans who have recorded her songs.

It was one of the best 1960’s folk music revival albums of the 20th Century. “Folk Roots New Routes” it is a beautiful, highly respected and often the go-to British folk album which has earnt a great deal of admiration from many musicians, critics and fans around the world. At the center of this extraordinary record is Collins’ startling voice. It is clear and stark, pure but free of prettiness, a vehicle for a song and its sentiments, entirely without ego.

Davy Graham and Shirley Collins’ pioneering arrangements and playing is unyielding and timeless, yet their uncompromising approach was also very innovative.

Pressed on 180grm vinyl, analogue remastered with many tracks in stereo for the first time, directly from tapes for RSD 2020.Comes with new additional liner notes and rare photos printed on the inner sleeve. Some tracks are released in stereo for the first time ever.

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RHYS LEWIS – ” What If “

Posted: October 7, 2019 in MUSIC
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“What If”, Rhys Lewis addresses this often-detrimental rumination in a way that’s earnestly emotional and touchingly impassioned. Although his lyricism is stunning, with just his vocal performance Lewis manages to convey both the emotions behind his painful reflections on lost love and the intense adoration he once felt. It’s perhaps in the track’s second verse that Lewis reaches his most earnest detailing in previous inability to see in himself what his ex-girlfriend saw in him.

Love can be a boundless feeling. It can lock us into an armored bubble, keeping us from harm. Although it has its magic, love can break hearts and it can silence the clash of two pairs of lips. Dreaming of love will never be as intense as the real coming together of two honest chasers of passion. We all need affection to live a purposeful life. We also need to pick ourselves up when love begins to lose its flame.

Singer/songwriter Rhys Lewis embarks on creating fables within his songs. The young musician tantalises with new track “What If”. It’s a multi-layered, triumphant, cathartic ballad of sorts. Throughout the track, he conveys a sense of loss, describing that he must patch up love’s stricken body, and that he must bring the girl back into his world.

The descriptions are poignant. Lewis’s ability to stir up emotion makes him such a unique songwriter. He dazzles but also seeks redemption, and he implements into everything he produces, a light. This light may not always be brighter than the sun, but it’s always there.

“What If” is yet another forward thinking track. It doesn’t raise hell, but the subject matter is eventful and the arrangements are intricate. Lewis knows how to construct chords and compelling lyrics which intertwine to create a showpiece.

SAVOY BROWN – ” The First Eight Albums ” 1966-1972

Posted: September 22, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Savoy Brown has never had a song on the pop charts and none of their albums have ever inched above the top thirty anywhere in the world. Yet, for aficionados of British blues, they hold a unique place. Between 1967 and 1974, Savoy Brown released nearly a dozen notable albums that took a holistic approach to the blues, snaking through an ever-evolving mix of boogie, R&B, jazz, and psychedelic rock.

The story of how those albums came to be contains a drama rife with personality clashes, exacerbated by a pitched resistance to the slickness of pop stardom. Over the years, the band switched line-ups as often as Imelda Marcos changed shoes. Yet their music achieved a consistent quality that deserves a rehearing by anybody who appreciates blues with a hard rocking edge.

Since they began, more than 60 musicians have played in the band. Simmonds has fronted the group as a trio since 2012 with bassist Pat DeSalvo and drummer Garnet Grimm. Formed in London in 1965. They became a fixture on the burgeoning blues-rock scene in the UK in the second half of the decade. Savoy Brown never achieved the record success in their own country that was enjoyed by such proponents of the genre as Fleetwood Mac or John Mayall; indeed their UK chart life consisted of precisely one week at No. 50 for 1970’s Decca album Looking In.

In advance of a new studio project, Savoy Brown recently released Still Live After 50 Years, Vol. 2,which follows 2015’s first volume. It marks the 50th anniversary of their debut album on Decca, Shake Down, which showcased their blues pedigree with covers of B.B. King, John Lee Hooker and Willie Dixon.

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Kim Simmonds was Savoy Brown’s stalwart leader, and sole consistent member—rates as one of the most emotive and flexible guitar heroes Britain has ever produced. His love of the blues began after he heard the American pioneers featured in his brother’s record collection. “It was the honesty of the music that attracted me,” the guitarist said. “There was none of the nonsense of pop. It’s simple music, yet at the same time there’s great art in it.”

Simmonds and Savoy Brown never achieved the stardom of their contemporaries, maintaining an underground status and establishing their reputation with energized live performances that continue to the present day. Like a phoenix, Simmonds always rose from the ashes of critical band member departures and forged ahead, creating engaging blues oriented rock music with a long list of talented musicians. Following their initial success in the mid-1960s, as a traditional blues band featuring the dynamic Chris Youlden on vocals, Youlden departed and the band began heading in a more hard rock/boogie band direction, releasing several memorable albums.

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Shake Down (September 1967)

Kim Simmonds formed his baby step version of Savoy Brown in 1965, when he was just 18. Their initial line-up featured six players, including harmonica player John O’Leary, and singer Bryce Portius, perhaps the first black musician to be part of a British rock band. The latter hire reflected Simmonds‘ upbringing in a racially mixed area of South London. In their early gigs, Savoy played the same clubs as Fleetwood Mac, opened for Cream at some of that group’s earliest shows and even served as John Lee Hooker’s band on a full U.K. tour. Their growing reputation as a live act got them a deal with Decca Records. But by the time they cut their first album, , they had already replaced two of their initial players and added a second guitarist: Martin Stone. The band’s debut album , ‘Shake Down’, released in September of ’67, featured production from Mike Vernon, blues-rock’s ultimate go-to guy for his work with John Mayall, Fleetwood Mac, and later, Ten Years After. 
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Cover versions of classic blues songs ate up their debut, with the exception of one cut written by Stone. From the album’s first song, the focus fell on Simmonds‘ shivering tone and limber leads. Yet only one track gave him room to stretch out, a final 6 minute take on the traditional blues “Shakedown”.
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Getting to the Point (July 1968)

The band’s tentative first-steps necessitated a strong rethink before Simmonds cut album No. 2. Four of the band’s six members got pink slipped, leaving only their leader and pianist Bob Hall. (For a blink-and-you-missed-it moment, Savoy had at its drummer Bill Bruford, who went on to great success with Yes). The band’s more defining hires turned out to be second guitarist “Lonesome” Dave Peverette, a friend of Simmonds‘ from childhood, and frontman Chris Youlden. Though he owns one of rock’s burliest, and most emotive voices, Youlden lacked the look of a showman. So the band’s manager (Simmonds‘ brother Harry) created an image for him, outfitting the frontman with a distinct bowler hat and a monocle. The unit’s debut release Getting To The Point , was released in July of ’68, bold-faced their reboot with eight original pieces. The slow blues Flood In Houston, , offered a nice showcase for Youlden’s inventive vocals, as well as Simmond’s intuitive guitar. But a cover track Of Willie Dixons You Need Love , has intrigued historians most. Youlden’s cry of “deep down inside, woman, you need love,” later struck some listeners as a precursor to Robert Plant’s famous use of those lines in “Whole Lotta Love”  , released one year later. Simmonds believes some of his licks also had an influence on that track. “We did dates with The  Yardbirds when Jimmy Page was in the band,” Simmonds said. “I wouldn’t doubt that he heard some of that material.”

Blue Matter (May 1969)

Blue Matter was the bands third album and shows off British Blues at it’s finest and includes the stunning ‘Train To Nowhere’ This track, which leads off the band’s third album Blue Matter (their first album of 1969), rumbles along to thumping beat, with Simmonds’ guitar picking up steam along the way, driving the song home to its train whistle-punctuated finish.. Savoy Brown greatly widened their melodic reach on 1969’s “Blue Matter” . The key track, Train To Nowhere, threaded four muted trombones behind Simmonds’ valiant solo, while the vocal from Youlden nailed the existential pull of the lyric.

The band devoted half of the album to live tracks were recorded on December 6th, 1968, at the now defunct City of Leicester College of Education because the band was scheduled to tour the US and needed additional tracks to complete the album in time for the tour. The booking at the college represented their only chance to record the extra tracks in a live venue before embarking on the tour. An offer to perform the concert free of charge was accepted by Chris Green, the college Social Secretary, who had made the original booking, and the concert was duly recorded, a number of the live tracks being added to the album.  which Youlden missed due to a bad case of tonsillitis. His loss gave the band two gains: Guitarist Peverette got to show off his own skills as a vocalist, and the musicians got to stretch out on tracks that lasted up to nine minutes. The concert format re-emphasized Savoy’s forte as a live band. Subsequently, the group began to concentrate on touring, particularly in the U.S., where they headlined the Fillmore East and West several times.

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This is one of the concert recordings found on the half studio/half live Blue Matter album. Savoy Brown here takes this Muddy Waters tune on a wild nine-minute adventure, which is highlighted by Simmonds’ massive and monumental guitar solo that commands the middle of the song. You can see why they were known for their live performances.

Very heavy blues for the time. David Anstey’s cover fits perfectly with the music. Some of Kim’s best, most ferocious guitar playing. Black Cat Bone’s “Barbed Wire Sandwich” had the same feel. Guitarist Rod Price, from Black Cat Bones, would later go on to play in Foghat, made up of ex Savoy Brown members.

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A Step Further (September 1969)

A Step Further was released later that year, and introduced bassist Tony Stevens replacing Jobe. They developed a loyal core following in the United States, due to songs such as “I’m Tired,” a driving, melodic song from the album.

Youlden more than compensated for his absence on the live part of ‘Blue Matter’ by dominating the writing on the first side one of the band’s next album “A Step Further”, released in late ’69. He proved a striking songwriter, even on the instrumental track Waiting In The Bamboo Groove, which was fired by a charging horn section.

Filling up the entire second side of Savoy Brown’s fourth album, this mammoth live number clocks in at over 22 minutes. As the band boogies along, they detour into “I Feel So Good,” “Whole Lotta Shakin’,” “Little Queenie,” “Purple Haze,” and “Hernando’s Hideaway.” The guys impressively never lose their way due to the tremendous guitar-work of Simmonds and Lonesome Dave Peverett and the entertaining showmanship of frontman Chris Youden.

Chris Youlden was at that time one of the best vocalist’s I’d ever heard. With the wonderful guitars of Peverett and Simmonds. SAVOY BROWN in the sixties were one of the best English. My favourite song of this record is ‘ Life’s One Act Play ‘. INCREDIBLE FEELING.

This funky little workout, hailing from Savoy Brown’s second album of 1969, reached No. 74 on the Billboard Hot 100. Kicking off dramatically with a blast of horns, it weaves in some Jimi Hendrix and Yardbirds influences while showcasing Simmonds’ nimble fretwork and singer Youden’s soulful vocals.

Raw Sienna  (April 1970)

The band made an even greater leap on their fifth album “Raw Sienna”, , resulting in what some see as their studio masterpiece. Released in March of 1970, ‘Raw Sienna’ seemed to provide a U.K. answer to the jazz-rock trend exploding out of America in bands like Blood Sweat & Tears and Chicago. In fact, Simmonds took his inspiration from Ray Charles, Little Milton and the classic recordings of Blue Note. The full-bodied horn section, used throughout, added muscle to the best compositions of Youlden and Simmonds‘ careers. Youlden wrote six songs, including the heartfelt “I’m Crying” and the sexy “Stay While The Night Is long” while Simmonds contributed the emotive “That Same Feelin”, along with the album’s most animated track, Master Hare . A jazz-rock instrumental, “Hare” suggested a caffeinated version of a Dave Brubeck classic. Regardless, the album underperformed on the charts,

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For another blow, Youlden announced right after finishing recording that he was finished with the group as well. “He wanted to go in a more singer-songwriter direction, and I wanted to go more towards the guitar,” Simmonds said. Personal problems also contributed to the split. “We didn’t get along too well,” the band leader said.
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Savoy Brown packs a big punch into this early ‘70s FM mini-hit that only pushes just past the two-minute mark. Propelled by Tony Stevens’ bass, the band hits a Santana-like Latin-blues groove that is elevated by Simmonds’ smooth and (for him) short for him guitar solo.

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Looking In  (October 1970)

Lonesome Dave Peverett took over from Chris Youlden on vocals who had recently left the band on this 1970 album. One of their best we reckon!

Luckily, the band had Peverette in their back pocket as a vocalist. More, Simmonds had already written material he knew was among his strongest for a potential follow-up work. Released just seven months after ‘Raw Sienna’, in October of 1970, the album “Looking In” not only revealed a new lead singer but a whole new sound. With its tighter, four man line-up, Savoy Brown set its sights on hard rock, giving the music more punch and weight. After opening with a gorgeous solo guitar piece from Simmonds, the band launched into “Poor Girl”, a titanic rocker that honed the new tone. Peverette, a formerly shy singer, presented a newly assertive vocal style, while Simmonds kept the songwriting level high with the slinky “Money Can’t Save Your Soul” and the jazz-tinged title track. The latter boasted dueling guitars from Simmonds and Peverette that wouldn’t be out of place in the Allman Brothers catalouge . Together, it gave the band the highest chart score of its career, cracking the American Top 40 for the first, and only time.

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Street Corner Talking  (September 1971)

You’d think that success would encourage Simmonds to stick with the formula. But, in an exceptionally gutsy move, he challenged the other players to explore something dramatically different for their follow-up. “I wanted to go for a tighter, R&B sound.” he said. The one thing about Savoy Brown they were an always evolving band, each album different from the last, each album consisted of a ever changing line up. I have no favourite , they seem to jam longer on the tracks on this album,
This album caught nearly everyone by surprise and brought Savoy Brown their first international hit and much greater exposure than ever before. Tracks from this album like “Tell Mama,” “Street Comer Talking,” and the band’s take on the Motown classic, “I Can’t Get Next To You,” all received extensive FM radio exposure. The album went platinum and the band found themselves playing before wildly enthusiastic audiences in America and Europe.

When the rest of the band proved ill equipped, or unwilling, to make that change, he fired all of them. The three—Peverette, bassist Tone Stevens and drummer Earle took some ideas Simmonds had blueprinted and used them to form a new group, Foghat. By buffing up the sound, and simplifying their approach, Foghat became a huge act in the U.S. Their willingness to standardize Savoy’s style, offers a key explanation for why they, rather than Simmonds’ group, achieved sustained stardom. Simmonds insists he “was very happy for them. And we remained great friends. I still get a thrill when I hear “Slow Ride” on the Nike commercial,” he said.

“All I Can Do” This song isn’t the old Etta James tune, although it shares the same line “All I can do is cry.” On this Savoy Brown original, the guys show off their mellower side and, at nearly 11 minutes, gives everyone – guitarist Simmonds, singer Walker, keyboardist Paul Raymond, bassist Andy Silvester and drummer Dave Bidwell – a chance to shine.

A shake-up in a fellow blues band helped the resourceful Simmonds rebound from the three man loss. As it happened, Stan Webb, czar of the Brit blues at Chicken Shack, had just jettisoned three members of his band. Recognizing an opportunity, Simmonds hired every one of them. The new line-up jelled remarkably well, especially with the addition of singer Dave Walker, whose deep voice had some of the throaty command of Youlden. The unit’s debut, “Street Corner Talking”, released in September of ’71, made good on Simmonds‘ goal to bring steely R&B to the blues, evident in a convincing cover of Motowns Temptations I Can’t get Next To You” The Temptations’ . The song received wide play on FM rock stations as did a catchy original, Tell Mama . Both cuts showcased a slicker, more streamlined production sound.

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Hellbound Train  (February 1972)

The groove on ‘Street Corner’ proved deep enough to inspire a strong restatement on its follow-up, “Hellbound Train” , released just five months later. The album found a highlight in the nine minute title cut, which remains a part of Savoy Brown’s set to this day. The mix of R&B, boogie and blues hit a trifecta with the next album ‘Lion’s Share’, released late in ’72. But, like all shades of Savoy Brown, this was another incarnation that wasn’t built to last.

By the end of that year, frontman Walker bolted to join the equally peripatetic Fleetwood Mac. His replacement, Jackie Lynton, proved a pale substitute, something the group tried to camouflage by surrounding him with scores of female backup singers on his sole album with them, ‘Jack The Toad’. After Lynton left, Simmonds made another ballsy move by hooking up with peer Stan Webb for a double-guitar assault of an album, ‘Boogie Brothers’ in 1974. After that, Simmonds himself took over the singing, though he never considered himself a top vocalist. Savoy Brown’s audience began to taper at that point, a trend which didn’t dissuade Simmonds from continuing to lead some version of his brand through all the decades since. Along the way, he has released scores of albums and toured regularly.

In the 50 years since Savoy Brown released their debut, they’ve run through over 60 (!) musicians, with Simmonds serving as their sole through line. “I can be a difficult person,” the band leader admitted. “And I don’t want to stand still. Once I’ve climbed a mountain, I want to climb another. If a band weren’t willing to do that, I would get another band.”

The subsequent roller-coaster ride hasn’t deterred Simmonds. For the band’s fiftieth anniversary this fall, Simmonds will release yet another new Savoy Brown album and tour to back it. “I have a strong motivation to continue,’ he said. “A famous poet once said “the deed can never be done without need.’ There’s something in me that’s gotta come out. Through all of it—the band’s changes, the music, and the fifty years the one tie-in is my guitar playing. That’s what keeps it all going.”

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TORI AMOS – ” Up The Creek “

Posted: August 13, 2017 in MUSIC
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Tori Amos has shared a new song off her forthcoming album, Native Invader, entitled ‘Up The Creek’.

The record will come out via Decca Records and, on the new single, features cameo vocals from Amos’ daughter, Tash. “Native Invader” is an intense feast of melody, protest, tenderness and pain. In the summer of 2016, Tori took a road trip through North Carolina’s Smoky Mountains. The intention was to reconnect with the stories and songlines of her mother’s family, who were from the North Carolina and Tennessee Smoky Mountain area. That winter, two seismic events knocked the plan off its axis. The fall out from the US Election. And in January her mother, Maryellen Amos, suffered a severe stroke leaving her unable to speak.

The complex influence of America’s alt-right Super PACs, lobbyists and think tanks informs much of the tension in Native Invader. “”It wasn’t going to be a record of pain, blood and bone when I began,” Tori says. “”It wasn’t going to be a record of division. But the Muses 9 insisted that I listened and watched the conflicts that were traumatizing the nation and write about those raw emotions. Hopefully people will find strength and resilience within the songs to give them the energy to survive the storms that we are currently in””. The sense of semantic distortion permeates Native Invader. Tori talks of the need to form a “”militia of the mind”” in the face of national lies.

The record looks to Nature and how, through resilience, she heals herself,” Amos explained in a statement. “The songs also wrestle with the question: what is our part in the destruction of our land, as well as ourselves, and in our relationships with each other?”

Beginning in September, Tori Amos will head out on tour throughout the UK and Europe.

 

The ROLLING STONES – ” The Rolling Stones ” Debut Album Released April 16th 1964

Posted: April 16, 2015 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Released in April 1964, The Rolling Stones was – according to guitarist Keith Richards – half-comprised of rough mixes precipitously rushed onto the market by their manager (and the album’s nominal producer) Andrew Loog Oldham. It’s a testament to the group’s brilliance that the result was still the best album to emerge from the early 1960s British blues boom.
The Rolling Stones is the debut album by The Rolling Stones, released by Decca Records in the UK on 16 April 1964. The American edition of the LP, with a slightly different track list, came out on London Records on 30 May 1964, with the added title England’s Newest Hit Makers.

The majority of the tracks reflect the band’s love for R&B. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (whose professional name until 1978 omitted the “s” in his surname) were fledgling songwriters during early 1964, contributing only one original composition to the album: “Tell Me (You’re Coming Back)”. Two songs are credited to “Nanker Phelge” – a pseudonym the band used for group compositions from 1963 to 1965. Phil Spector and Gene Pitney both contributed to the recording sessions, and are referred to as “Uncle Phil and Uncle Gene” in the subtitle of the Phelge instrumental “Now I’ve Got a Witness.”

The album cover photo was taken by Nicholas Wright. The cover bears no title or identifying information other than the photo and the Decca logo – an “unheard of” design concept originated by manager Andrew Oldham.

Upon its release, The Rolling Stones became one of 1964’s biggest sellers in the UK, staying at No. 1 for twelve weeks.the rolling stones 1964

 

The Rolling Stones
  • Mick Jagger – lead and backing vocals, harmonica on “Little by Little” and “I’m a King Bee”, percussion
  • Keith Richards – guitar, backing vocals
  • Brian Jones – guitar, harmonica, percussion, backing vocals, co-lead vocals on “Walking The Dog”
  • Bill Wyman – bass guitar, backing vocals
  • Charlie Watts – drums, percussion
Additional musicians
  • Ian Stewart – organ, piano
  • Gene Pitney – piano on “Little by Little”
  • Phil Spector – maracas on “Little by Little”