Poly Styrene RIP

Really sad to hear yesterday that Poly Styrene ( real name Marian Joan Elliott-Said) died yesterday after a long battle against breast cancer.  She was a lovely woman.. I adored her back in the 70's for just being so herself and she seemed to have kept that attitude through her life, right through to the end despite the cancer by all accounts.  I first saw them at the Rock Against Racism concert at Victoria Park in April '78 and then at my first proper punk gig with X-ray Spex and Adam & the Ants at the Roundhouse in May '78 and finally at the Hammersmith Odeon (with seats..boo!) when they were having some chart success.. just wish I'd been a bit older and able to start seeing them sooner and more often!  I'm cursing myself for missing the recent 'reunion' gig at the Roundhouse..I've just been watching some clips on You Tube and it looked a great one.

The Maytals - Walk With Love

Just a quick one today.. one of my favourite Toots and the Maytals tracks and one that doesn't turn up on most compilations.  I came across the version of this on a Trojan compilation back in the 90's and had to hunt down a Jamaican copy to get the vocal version and it was well worth the effort.  This track is from 1971 on the Beverly's label.. (Interestingly the UK version on Summit which I picked up later is totally different recording and about 20 seconds shorter.. )

As I mentioned it..here's the UK version.

The Fat Man

I've had a bunch of music post ideas knocking around for a while.. gonna start off with some stuff today by Fats Domino.  He tends to be remembered for tunes like 'Blueberry Hill' and did record a lot of more middle of the road popular R'n'B but some of his 50's tunes were solid rockin' New Orleans rock'n'roll. He was also a massive influence on Jamaican music.. particularly in songs like 'The Big Beat' and 'Sick and Tired'. I was well into old Rock and Roll before I got into punk and the two overlapped for me.. I never bought into any of the punks v Teds rubbish of the late 70's (apart from dodging gangs of teds late at night on my way home from gigs in Camden Town!).. The first records I bought were Fats Domino and Elvis LP's and the first gig I went to was Fats at the Hammersmith Odeon in May '78, (a couple of weeks before I went to see X-Ray Spex and Adam & the Ants at the Roundhouse.. from 'Be My Guest' to 'Beat My Guest'!)).

Fats is still hanging in there in New Orleans, (having survived Hurricane Katrina..) He gave up touring a long time ago and just enjoyed living on the royalties he'd racked up over his 40 years of recording...  great stuff.  Here are a few of my favourites.. all solid mono direct from the 45's.

The Big Beat

 
Sick and Tired

Be My Guest

Nico in London, part 2

Finding the old Nico photo recently (Feb 26th post) inspired me to dig out a couple of other old bits,.. I found an old Record Mirror from August 28th, 1965 with an great article on Andrew Loog Oldham's latest discovery.. (click to read it.. it's a full size scan)

And here's the record she made.. pre Velvets with Jimmy Page on guitar..

Nico- I'm Not Saying

Nico - The Last Mile

Sideburns No.1 - This is chord, this is another, this is third.. now form a band!

Bit of a special one here.. from January 1977 this is the zine with the legendary 'here are 3 chords, now form a band'.. and the rest is pretty cool too.  There's a 5 page Stranglers feature with an interview with Jet Black, live reviews of Eddie and the HotRods at the Roundhouse plus bits on the Feelgoods, Lew Lewis and the Darts.. yeah, not what we'd call punk now but this was Jan 1977 and there weren't too many what we'd now call punk bands around.. that all happened..um.. probably a week or two after this came out!  There is a great short editorial bit on page 3 about the beginnings of the London punk scene which gives you a feeling of what it was like back then..  (Got to say a big thanks to Martin for helping me get hold of this one! )

Download Sideburns #1

Suze Rotolo (November 20, 1943 – February 24, 2011)

I just read that Bob Dylan's old girl friend and muse Suze Rotolo died recently, aged 67 after a long illness.  She's best known for being on the cover of his second LP, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, but was also key to politicising Dylan in the early 60's and was the inspiration to some of his great early songs , such as "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and "Boots of Spanish Leather".   They were together around late 1961 till early '63.  After she and Dylan seperated (he left her for Joan Baez) she continued to be involved in the Greenwich Village scene, visted Cuba in 1964 and was involved in the Civil Rights movement.  She wrote a book,  "A Freewheelin' Time, A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties" in 2008 (which I haven't read yet but it's in the pile I'm slowly working my way through..)  She was interviewed in the Scorsese Dylan documentary 'No Direction Home' and came across as a very modest, cool woman who just happened to find herself in the middle of an exploding folk scene, involved with it's biggest star and just took it all in her stride and got on with her own life when Dylan moved on...  Suze RIP

Update: I've finished reading Suze's book 'A Freewheelin' Time' and thoroughly recommend it whether you're into Dylan or not..  It's a snapshot of the 60's folk scene and New York Greenwich Village scene and how she had to deal with the changes happening at the time both personally and politically.. It's a great read.

And a bit more Dylan.. my mum gave me a stack of old Sing Out folk magazines she bought back in the early 60's including this one with a very early Dylan cover feature, from 1962.  This was around the time his first LP came out and has words and music for several of his newer songs at the time, including 'Blowin' in the Wind'.  I just scanned the Dylan pages..it's quite a chunky magazine.

Download Sing Out Oct - Nov 1962

Nico in London

Nice photo of Nico in London around the time she recorded with Andrew Loog Oldham in 1965.