A sadly Sarah-less Saturday morning saw the Linn conjure a magnificent seven play-throughs of newly acquired albums. Heres how it went: 1 The Velvet Underground - US pressing of the self-titled 3rd LP. Cale has departed with his magnificent viola drone and been replaced by Doug Yule, whom Bowie mistakes for Lou as he seeks out the great man, Stateside. This album features the spellbindingly beautiful Pale Blue Eyes and the truly unsettling The Murder Mystery, but without John, Lou is struggling to remain on the cutting edge. He will really find himself again on the bands final outing, Loaded, which features two all-time rock classics in Sweet Jane (in my imagination, written for my wife) and Rock & Roll. 2 Pink Floyds epoch-making debut Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, from 67. The fact that virtually everything on this thrilling album is written by Syd Barrett just shows what a grievous loss his early departure would be for the band and for British music in general. A very dear friend of mine - Steve, who succumbed to cancer at an appallingly early age - got to know Syd well through Steves involvement with a daycare unit in Cambridge. Steve was heroically tight-lipped about a professional association that became more personal in nature, but at the time the notion that poor Syd would outlive my friend Steve was beyond ones darkest imagination. Whenever I hear Syd, I always think of Steve, and this is comforting. Clive James was put into Pseuds Corner by Private Eye in 1979 for opining that the comic actor Richard Beckinsale was so talented that his early death left a vacuum ahead of him, but I for one thought James was spot-on there, and this is how I will always think of my magnificent friend Steve. And of course the world thinks the same of Syd. 3 Larry Welch - Two Different Worlds (London 1966). Thank heaven for the London label in introducing so much American talent to the UK. This relatively unheralded but truly excellent album is a fine addition to The Vaults stock of London titles, including the two marvellous Ben E King albums featured in Fridays blog. 4 A Bobby Vee Recording Session (UK Liberty) - much better than expected, this, with some fine renditions from a man-boy best known for... 5 The Night Has A Thousand Eyes (UK Liberty) - I love this track ever since I heard it one Sunday on Saviles Trav........ oops, wed better move on, to: 6 Bobby Vinton Sings The Big Ones (UK Columbia), featuring a vastly superior version of The Twelfth Of Never to the one Donny Osmond would take to the upper echelons of the UK pop chart a decade later. What really stirred my senses on this album, though, was Bobbys take on Im Gettin Sentimental Over You, a tune which I heard regularly in my childhood, Live At The Drive, as my dad King Louis practised it on his trombone in preparation for another one-night stand with his jazz troupe. Dads velvet(ish) jacket was black rather than blue, though, and said song does not feature on this album anyway, so we move quickly on to... 7 I miscounted! With a resounding clang, The Vaults door closed on another week before we had time to play-test another platter. Till Monday then. Adieu, with the mighty Lou: https://youtube/watch?v=NcDuR9BF0Oc
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 09:14:29 +0000
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