Marks of weakness, marks of woe

Well it’s getting very close know…
So what is getting close very know you may scream ? well the bloody Olympic games in London I shall reply.
So with this eye-catching subject now grabbing your attention I thought I would pay my own little tribute to the city of my birth plus add a few views of my own surrounding it all. I love London, not the touristy parts, the expensive parts or the parts where thousands of people head into every day to sell their souls for a large salary and to support the growth of evil corporate capitalists, no I like the obscure parts, the old historical parts, the parts that make London the great city it still is hidden from the general masses as they don’t want to look for it or even try to understand it. I have no problem with the Olympics as an event but have great reservations regarding this legacy it is supposed to leave behind and also why we have to indulge and involve giant corporations sponsoring everything from the tickets, the food and building massive new shopping complexes. Most of these monolithic giants are not even British run and have already invaded so much of our modern society already as to be the most invasive presence this country has ever seen. Now we have kids (children !!) going to high school proms in stretch limousines, wearing clothing produced in Asian sweat shops stuffing their faces with processed American style food portions. We can’t even offer the general public a British beer to drink when they watch the Olympic events as the corporate brewing giant Carlsberg has seen to that and will then charge around £7.00 a pint to drink something akin to one’s own urine, no I shall take that back, I have never tasted my own urine but I have tasted theirs and I’m sure mine is better.
Now before I head off into music land once again which is my main purpose with this blog let me recommend this site as my alternative offering to all the Olympic games festivities. http://www.derelictlondon.com/

Today I have picked three tracks all with a London connection of sorts, one is about a lovely river that flows through South-West London near the old Young’s Brewery in Wandsworth, another is written by Walthamstow alumni Nick Saloman (aka Bevis Frond) and sung by an ex-busker from Salem and then finally a murder song from the great Mr Nicholas Drain Lowe born in Walton-On-Thames.
Enjoy

Danny and The Champions Of The World - Wandle Swan

Mary Lou Lord - Cold Kilburn Rain

Nick Lowe - Basing Street

Me Gotta Go Now

I was going to post this new piece with a personal rant about capitalism and how it has corrupted nearly every part of modern society and I was going to match this theme with three songs including Todd Snider’s ‘New York Banker’ from his latest album ‘Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables’. This led me to listening extensively to some more tracks by Todd, a great, great songwriter who always hits the mark with his acerbic lyrics and extensive subject matter which is obviously based on his wry observations of modern America and so of course I came across his song ‘The Ballad Of The Kingsmen’ from his 2004 album, East Nashville Skyline and all of a sudden a totally new theme emerged.

Both Todd and the Kingsmen originate from Portland, Oregon and although Todd wasn’t born until 1966 the Kingsmen had already reached #2 in the Billboard charts three years earlier with their mighty garage rock rendition of Richard Berry’s ‘Louie Louie’. Now I have heard a lot a lot of music over the years but hearing any version of Louie Louie just brightens my day and makes everything seem a little better for those two minutes or so. There have been whole albums released and books written on the subject of Louie Louie but who really cares as it’s just a classic song and if it fails to move you then sorry but you obviously don’t have any rock & roll in your soul!

Following my Portland trail even further this then led me on to my third track from Don & The Goodtimes. Yet another band hailing from the North West Coast of America. Don is actually Don Gallucci and he was an original member of the Kingsmen back in the early sixties, now this longer version is a absolute stunner it sounds to me like three songs melted into one and is on my best ever list if I ever decided to make one.
Enjoy

Todd Snider - The Ballad Of The Kingsmen

The Kingsmen - Louie Louie

Don And The Goodtimes - Louie Louie

Manners Pianos & Mouth Organs

Buried deep in the suburbs of West London you might come across The Bitter Springs, reincarnated from a previous existence as The Last Party this band has been releasing a singular type of very English music since 1985. They have cultivated a close alliance with that old punker Vic Godard, but they have been mostly ignored over the years by the music industry and the music press. I of course have a different view and feel they have produced a strong body of what I term very modern English music in this period and in Simon Rivers they have a chronicler of all that's often wrong with modern day life. The band themselves seem to pay a multitude of instruments and create different sounding songs to accompany Simon's great lyrics. For me it was a difficult choice picking any tracks to emphasise my point but I have chosen these three and I hope they point the way to a day when perhaps this band will be recognised for how good they really are.

The Bitter Springs - Gary Glitter Fan Convention

The Bitter Springs - Thee Idiots Computing

The Bitter Springs - Benny Hills Wardrobe The Bitter Springs - Even Now

My Return From The Wilderness

 I have been away from from the Blogsphere for around 3 years since I shut down Spunky Onions and The Novelty Rock Emporium. I suppose I could have commenced posting on them both again but I wanted a fresh start. I'm still on Tumblr and will probably continue there for a while longer but I wanted a forum where listeners/viewers/browsers had access to download the music if they wanted and obviously if the artist does not request me to remove the track. I will only post music I like and appreciate and sounds that I think need a wider audience, something outside mainstream itunes music. So I begin with an old favourite of mine singing about a Saturday afternoon wrestling hero from the 1970's.

The Bevis Frond - Johnny Kwango