Hüsker Dü – Candy Apple Grey

The wife has been on a Hüsker Dü tip of late, and I’ve been making a conscious effort to listen to bands I’ve never really heard and giving them some eartime (it was Uriah Heep yesterday), ‘cos you never know. Anyway, this arrived in the post today, so I thought I’d give it a whirl.

Hüsker Dü were included in Half Man Half Biscuit’s Irk The Purists for good reason - people who love them go on and on about them. And, if anybody ever read these posts, purist or otherwise, I’d probably irk them by picking their fist major label release.

I normally avoid anything tagged Alternative Rock. Hence, Hüsker Dü remain a bit of a mystery to me.

There’s some big tunes in here. Whether they warrant all the fervour, I don’t know. It all goes a bit REM in places.

Also, Bob Mould would’ve been one of the best made-up punk names, if it wasn't his real name.

Two words to say about the pressing (the only Record Store Day release I own, on lilac vinyl): cät shït.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#HüskerDü
#CandyAppleGrey
#AlternativeRock
#Music

Johnnie Taylor - Just Ain't Good Enough

Johnnie Taylor recorded only this one album for Beverly Glen Music before, quelle surprise, the relationship ended in bitterness and acrimony. (BGM had form in this area.) But what an album!

This is another Beverly Glen record that takes that deep southern soul feeling and chucks everything, including the big, fancy, marble, double sized, Hollywood kitchen sink at it – plumbed in by Patrick Molten and Otis Smith.

In What About My Love and Just Ain’t Good Enough, this album contains two of my favourite tunes ever.

The sleeve contains the most uneffusive statement from (presumably) JT: “I would like to thank a lot of great people who put forth their efforts. I enjoyed doing this album, and I hope everyone enjoys it as well.”

It also has the most aggressive promo stamp: “LOANED FOR PROMOTION Not for Sale/May Be Reclaimed.” Reclaimed? Yikes!

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#JohnnieTaylor
#JustAintGoodEnough
#BeverlyGlenMusic
#Music

John Spithead

2025-08-11 03:22:29

White Lines

Anita Baker - The Songstress

Anita Baker was working as a secretary and singing in the group Chapter 8, when Beverly Glen, an independent soul label put out this, her solo debut in 1983.

To say it had high production values was an understatement. She had a supporting cast of top-notch producers, players and singers. She even got a gate-fold sleeve. No expense was spared.

How could an indie label do this? Crack, that’s how. The album was financed by “Freeway” Rick Ross, multi-million dollar dealer of cocaine and apparent fan of velvety jazz-soul vocals.

Otis Smith, who owned the label, was a bit of a spiv. He had promised Bobby Womack he could get a deal for him with Motown, but instead signed him to Beverley Glen, giving world wide distribution to Motown, but keeping the US rights to himself. The Poet & Poet 2 sold millions. Bobby never saw a dime - but it cost him a fortune to get out of his contract.

Anita Baker never got paid for this album and spent thousands (and a couple of years) trying to get out of her contract, so she could sign for Elektra.

By, 1985 even his law firm had sued him to get paid for their services.

I bet “Freeway” Rick Ross never had to send a solicitor's letter.

Once signed to Elektra, Baker became the epoch-defining singer of smooth Mum-soul.

I bought it in the Virgin Megastore in Piccadilly Circus on import.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#AnitaBaker
#TheSongstress
#Music
#Soul
#FreewayRickRoss
#BeverlyGlen

Old And New Dreams - Playing

Old and New Dreams was a quartet made up of former Ornette Coleman sidemen: Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell. They played a mix of Coleman’s tunes and their own work, in an attempt to keep the free jazz flag flying.

This album finds them recorded live in Austria in 1980. As with a lot of live recordings, I’m left a little cold, despite the obviously brilliant chops on show. Being there would obviously have been wonderful.

Interestingly, the front cover has a photo of a football goal. In small letters at the bottom right of the sleeve are the words, “The kicker suddenly started his run.” Turn the sleeve over and, along the bottom is written, “The goalkeeper, who was wearing a bright yellow jersey, stood absolutely still, and the penalty kicker shot the ball into his hands.” Turns out this is a quote from Austrian writer Peter Handke, describing the goalkeeper’s dilemma (which way to dive, or whether to dive at all) at a penalty kick, in his short novel from 1970, Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter, or The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick. I’d never noticed this before.

I picked this superb ECM German pressing up as part of the best ever opshop streak a few years ago. It’s got a $2.50 sticker on, but might’ve even been half price or less.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#OldAndNewDreams
#Playing
#DonCherry
#OrnetteColeman
#DeweyRedman
#CarlieHaden
#EdBlackwell
#PeterHandke
#Music
#FreeJazz

The Natural Four - Nightchaser

This is an album of pretty standard Curtom fare, with the producers, LeRoy Hutson, Chuck Jackson, Lowrell Simon, and Richard Evans amongst them, being far higher achievers than the band themselves.

What you get is an album of decent pre-disco, seventies soul with only one relatively dreary ballad. Get It Over With is the stand-out tune. To be fair, almost any of the up-tempo tunes could have turned out to be modern soul classics. Except they’re not.

The front cover shows the four band members in their glad rags, in a swanky pad with seven hot ladies. Naturally. The glass coffee table has what looks like a large plate of falafel. They’re all having a whale of a time, except for the bloke on the bottom right who is looking at one of the ladies like he’s just asked her to shit on the glass coffee table and she’s refused.

Flip to the rear of the sleeve and the photo is of the same room in the aftermath of the party – wine bottle on the floor, clothing scattered asunder, ashtray half full of nubs, people and falafel all but gone. Who’s going to tidy up?

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#TheNaturalFour
#Nightchaser
#Soul
#Curtom
#Music
#LeRoyHutson

Hugh Masekela - The Boy's Doin' It

On 27th September 1984, as part of the London Festival of Black Music at the Wembley Arena, I saw Hugh Masekela live. (Also on the bill that night were Philip Bailey, The Crusaders, Ronnie Laws, Stanley Clarke with George Duke and Junior Giscombe – how’s that for a line-up?)

The next morning I was on the Central Line and who should get on my train but Hugh Masekela. I was quite star-struck. When we came to our stop and I passed him to get off the train, I said quietly, “Good gig last might, mate,” He said, “Thank you, my friend.” I think he’s the most famous person I’ve ever met.

Masekela recorded this in 1975 in Lagos, and it’s accordingly full of Fela vibes (the album is dedicated to him), although mixed with a pan-African and funk influence.

I picked this up for £1.99 in a Birmingham charity shop in the 90s.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#HughMasekela
#TheBoysDoinIt
#Music
#FelaKuti
#Lagos
#CentralLine

Slade - Old New Borrowed And Blue

Slade all look a bit gloomy on the cover of this album. As well they might, considering they were now well into the slide towards diminishing returns.

This is the fifth Slade LP I’ve posted about, so there’s nothing much left for me to say about them. So pour yourself a nice cup-a-soup and I’ll tell you a bit about Wolverhampton.
- Woverhampton Wanderers is one of the most...erm, exciting away games. I once got hit on the head with a ten bob bit there.
- Goldie, Liam Payne, Edward Elgar, Caitlin Moran and Eric Idle come from Wolvo.
- I once saw Fugazi there (at the Wulfun Hall, in case you were wondering). They were a bit boring.
- My mate Dave and I once schlepped all the way there to see Swamp Dogg, who had cancelled.

*This, if my memory serves me well, is a lyric from legendary Wolverhampton punk band The Velvet Underpants, whose name many train passengers would recognise from it being painted on a wall next to the train line at Birmingham New Street Station.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#Slade
#OldNewBorrowedAndBlue
#Music

Anita Baker - The Songstress

Anita Baker was working as a secretary and singing in the group Chapter 8, when Beverly Glen, an independent soul label put out this, her solo debut in 1983.

To say it had high production values was an understatement. She had a supporting cast of top-notch producers, players and singers. She even got a gate-fold sleeve. No expense was spared.

How could an indie label do this? Crack, that’s how. The album was financed by “Freeway” Rick Ross, multi-million dollar dealer of cocaine and apparent fan of velvety jazz-soul vocals.

Otis Smith, who owned the label, was a bit of a spiv. He had promised Bobby Womack he could get a deal for him with Motown, but instead signed him to Beverley Glen, giving world wide distribution to Motown, but keeping the US rights to himself. The Poet & Poet 2 sold millions. Bobby never saw a dime - but it cost him a fortune to get out of his contract.

Anita Baker never got paid for this album and spent thousands (and a couple of years) trying to get out of her contract, so she could sign for Elektra.

By, 1985 even his law firm had sued him to get paid for their services.

I bet “Freeway” Rick Ross never had to send a solicitor's letter.

Once signed to Elektra, Baker became the epoch-defining singer of smooth Mum-soul.

I bought it in the Virgin Megastore in Piccadilly Circus on import.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#AnitaBaker
#TheSongstress
#Music
#Soul
#FreewayRickRoss
#BeverlyGlen

Johnny "Guitar" Watson - And The Family Clone

Johnny “Guitar” Watson was another one of those eccentric, genre-bending characters, who carried on churning out albums, and which I kept on buying. I’ve got a few JGW LPs.

This one, from 1981, sees Watson playing all the instruments (apart from the drums on one track) and doing all the vocals himself. It's got his mix of soul, blues, disco, funk and jazz, typical for this period of his work. He was fond of a vocoder too.

This was Watson’s last album on the DJM imprint, the label owned by Dick James, who had made his dough owning owning the Beatles publishing and signing Reg Dwight.

I saw Watson live once, at the Town & Country Club in Kentish Town, which the internet tells me was the 27th June 1987. I remember having a bit of a shit night, but that was down to who I was with, I think. A waste. Impressive, though, that he could still fill the T&C in 1987, despite having largely faded into obscurity by then. Also, probably the wrong venue for him at that time.

This is a really good album.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#JohnnyGuitarWatson
#Music
#AndTheFamilyClone

Andy Hamilton & the Blue Notes - Silvershine

Andy Hamilton left Jamaica to come to Britain as part of the Windrush generation, bringing with him his sweet tenor style: think Lester Young with a Caribbean flavour.

The thing that is universally repeated about Hamilton is that he wrote the tune Silvershine for Errol Flynn. However, I think it's much more interesting that he recalled the tune whilst lying in a diabetic coma in the 1980s. But that's just me.

Hamilton played every Monday night upstairs at The Bear in Bearwood, accompanied by a mix of old-spars and young guns coming up under his mentorship. We used to go occasionally, and I was introduced to him once by our housemate, who studied under him. He was clearly a very important man; extremely charismatic and super cool.

Honestly, if he had moved to the US, or even London, rather than Brum, he would be much better known.

It seems unbelievable to me now, that we didn't jump on the number 11 bus and go to see him every week. What were we thinking?

This album, released in 1991, features some big names from British jazz from that time: Andy Sheppard and Steve Williamson, for instance. Graeme, his trumpet-playing son, features, as does Jean Toussaint, who features on one track, as does a pre-Stars Mick Hucknall ,who, despite my reservations, does a decent job. Yep, I said it.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#AndyHamilton
#Jazz
#Birmingham
#Music
#Bearwood

Alive! - City Life

You know, playing this today reminded me of how hard it was to hear tunes you loved back in the old days. To hear this tune, for instance, I had to go out to hear a DJ play it, or listen to a pirate radio show that might play it. If I knew what it was called, I could go to one of a few specialist record shops who might have it or if I didn’t know the name, I could hum it to them - either way, I’d pay top dollar. It’s so easy now. But not necessarily better.

This is one of those records I would have loved to have had in the old days. I never knew what it was called until I looked it up on the internet and bought a copy a few years back.

It almost goes without saying that I bought this album for Skindo Le Le, a tune (TUNE!) which immediately takes me right back to the jazz rooms of the early eighties. That intro, that build, that climax! It still gives me a visceral response. And, honestly, this is my preferred version over Viva Brasil’s original.

And God, how we loved an alto sax in the 80s.

It was a staple of West Coast and Japanese jazz. Of course, this album, out of the San Francisco Bay area, is thick with it. And scat.

I never realised until today that Alive! were an all-woman group.

The rest of the album’s a bit meh. Very meh, in fact.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#Jazz
#Music
#Alive!
#CityLife
#SkindoLeLe
#Scat

Rufus and Chaka Khan Live - Stompin' At The Savoy

Considering that, for much of their career, they couldn’t stand being in the same room, it’s odd that, in 1982, only a year after their last flop of an album, and whilst Chaka Khan’s solo career is flying, they got together to record some live shows, to be recorded for a live in concert film. Tony & Toni from Peep Show vibes.

The film was shelved by Warner Bros. (until its eventual release on home video), but the audio recordings formed three sides of this album, the fourth being studio stuff.

They smash through their big hits, plus one of Chaka’s solo tunes. This version of Bobby Womack’s Stop On By is one of my favourite pieces of music ever. I can still remember hearing it being played on Robbie Vincent’s Saturday afternoon Radio London show.

The studio side has Ain’t Nobody on it, and it became the biggest hit of any of their careers.

Funny old business.

I picked up this US pressing (cut-out) at Victor Harbor market one Sunday.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#RufuswithChakaKhan
#Stompin’AtTheSavoy
#Music
#Soul

John Spithead

2025-08-01 02:19:19

You live in a quandry

Rufus - Camouflage

This was Rufus’ final album for MCA. The band and Chaka Khan reunited to knock this one out to meet their contractual obligations to the label. After this, Khan was free to pursue her solo career, which she did, instead of promoting the album. She’d fallen out with the rest of the band (again) and had recorded separately from them (again). The album disappeared without a trace.

Having said all that, it should be shit, but it’s actually OK.

It falls just at the tipping point between disco and post-disco/boogie and most of the up-tempo tunes reflect that.

Suffice to say, none of their big hits are on this album.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#RufuswithChakaKhan
#Music
#Soul

Swamp Dogg - Cuffed, Collared & Tagged

I have a few Swamp Dogg records. I reckon I got into him in the late eighties by picking up the Total Destruction To Your Mind LP secondhand because I liked the bonkers sleeve and I was hooked from there.

There’s a lot to like about Swamp Dogg: his barely-contained anger at politics, racism, the music business, and anyone else whom he believes has wronged him; he wears his heart on his sleeve; he is an unbridled eccentric, with total faith in his own genius.

To be fair, he is a prolific songwriter of some aplomb. When you hear one of his songs sung by someone else, you know it. On balance, he’s also made some shite.

This was his third album, released in 1972. It contains covers of John Prine’s Vietnam War veteran’s lament, Sam Stone,The Beatles’ Lady Madonna and Joe South’s Don’t It Make You Wanta Go Home. Musically, it falls in between the southern soul and country rock stools. It has a cast of thousands playing on this album (including the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, for Christ’s sake), showing that someone (still) saw some commercial value in all this and was willing to chuck dollars at him.

This is a US promo, which – according the the price written in marker pen on the front, had found itself in a 50c bin. I must’ve bought this off Discogs.

In an interesting indication of how times have changed since 1972, the ‘suggested cuts for air play’ sticker on the front lists Your Last Dirty Trick, a song where the protagonist commits intimate partner murder, going into more detail than is probably necessary, and doesn’t feel at all bad about it because, even though he’s now doing porridge, at least he’s no longer concerned whether the victim will late home. Interesting that you can go from railing against violence committed against soldiers of an invading army (albeit one disproportionately made up of black and working class men) and reveling in the violence committed against women in six short songs. It was a different age.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#SwampDogg
#CuffedCollared&Tagged
#Soul
#Music

Curved Air - Second Album

I picked this up in a charity shop in Romford (where I grew up) in the eighties. I was pleased to find it, because I liked Back Street Luv a lot, because my mate’s dad had the single and we used to listen to it.

I didn’t realise until just now that Sonja Kristina, Curved Air's singer, came from Brentwood, which is basically next door to Romford (and is a bit posher!)

Kristina has a great prog voice, kind of white and folky, verging on the operatic. She gives off really bored customer-facing role vibes, but gets away with this by being smoking hot.

The band’s two main characters, Darryl Way and Francis Monkman were experiencing musical differences at the time, which led them to split the sides of the album between them, a split which continued to widen as time went on.

For what it’s worth, I think Way’s side of the album is better.

Back Street Luv is a fucking masterpiece. Florian Pilkington-Miksa’s drumming is so good, the keyboards are throbbing, the guitar has lots of fancy little licks. It’s a perfect backdrop to Kristina’s voice.

Fun fact: Stewart Copeland (Klark Kent, The Police) cut his teeth in a later version of the band. I think you can hear the influence in his later work. He was also married to Sonja Kristina for many years.

The UK version has the die-cut sleeve of die-cut sleeves. It has a kind of cover-booklet-fold out thing going on. Total prog folly, but quite marvelous in its own way. It must have cost them a fortune to make.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#CurvedAir
#SonjaKristina
#Romford
#Brentwood
#StewartCopeland
#ProgRock
#SecondAlbum
#Music

Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & the London Symphony Orchestra – Promises

Another album that came out in covid times. I remember buying this on pre-release and waiting absolutely ages for it to come out. In my head, it’s a piece of work as completely associated with that time as Tiger King or Love Island. I have really no idea why I bought it, other than I think there was a fair amount of buzz about it. And, you know, Pharoah Sanders. Other people I know own this too, and I see it in shops a lot, so it must’ve sold heaps. Turns out it was Sanders’ final album.

I haven’t played it much, because it’s mostly just a bit too ambient for me. I’m not one to frequent yoga studios, or, I dunno, independent garden centre cafes, but if they were playing this it wouldn’t be so out of place, and would make me more likely to frequent yoga studios or independent garden centre cafes. Also, the main refrain makes me think of Summer (The First Time) and I get that stuck in my head every fucking time. Honestly, I have had to make a concerted effort to banish Bobby Fucking Goldsboro from my head whilst playing this today, and still found myself unconsciously singing it along with it.

The string arrangement reminds me of Paddy McAloon’s I Trawl The Megahertz in places, which is no bad thing. On the second side, the strings come to the fore and this really is the highlight for me. Amazing.

180g vinyl, die-cut fancy sleeve, US edition...not really helping the push towards net zero here.

#NowPlaying
#FloatingPoints
#PharoahSanders
#LondonSymphonyOrchestra
#Vinyl
#Promises
#Lockdown
#Music
#BobbyGoldsboro

Prince Phillip Mitchell - Top Of The Line

Of all the Prince Phillips who have been around during my lifetime, Prince Phillip Mitchell is my favourite. He really should be better known.

He wrote a couple of biggies: Starting All Over Again for Mel & Tim (one of my favourite Stax tunes), It Hurts So Good for Millie Jackson (see also Skinhead Reggae classic of my childhood years, Hurt So Good by Susan Cadogan, bearing the sticky ganja fingerprints of Lee Scratch Perry), mixed in all the right circles (Hi Records, Muscle Shoals), has produced people like Archie Bell & the Drells and has a decent set of vocal chords, with a stylistic nod towards Marvin Gaye at times.

I picked this US promo up a few years back when I was buying lots and lots of soul, more than I could ever do justice to by playing, really. It’s remained largely unplayed. However, this morning, old mate Phil's luck changed and he was the winner of a record shelf lucky dip.

The cover is a proper soul treat. The front cover is a photograph taken on a verandah against a dusk sky background and has Phil in the foreground, clad in fur coat with popped collar over cream two button box jacket with popped collar, over-accessorised - I would argue - with THREE necklaces, and a pair of Deirdre Barlow glasses with clear frames with white trim – oof!

Behind him are five be-suited men, one of whom is holding the lead of a Great Dane (dead now!). The men are all wearing sunglasses, despite the failing light, to show, I think, that they mean business and don’t need clear night vision to carry that business out.

The rear of the sleeve shows Phil with the dog alongside him. Phil looks happy, so maybe all the blokes on the front cover were engaged in the business of returning his missing dog, or were an elite dog-walking squad with no fear of trip-hazards.

Anyway, as Phil is now shown in full-length, we can see revealed that his cream box jacket is matched with a pair of light brown (matching the jacket’s buttons, which is a nice touch) slacks (perhaps even Farahs), and cream semi-pointed shoes. Class.

Anyway, it’s a classy album. The real killer cut, if you like, is I’m So Happy, a super slice of danceable modern soul and the reason I bought the album. But there’s quality throughout this album: recorded at Muscle Shoals, and featuring The Jones Girls, whose swooping backing vocals pervade and elevate the album.

The final track, Let's Get Wet, contains both sex noises and an open drum break of epic proportions.

#NowPlaying
#PrincePhillipMitchell
#TopOfTheLine
#Vinyl
#Music
#1979
#FarahSlacks
#DeirdreBarlow
#TheJonesGirls
#MuscleShoals