Category ACROSS THE DECADES
ROCKIN’ ALL OVER THE WORLD #5 — BRITAIN
The Rockin’ All Over The World series arose from the bar charts and little maps WordPress kindly provides to demonstrate how our blogs are far less popular than we dreamed. Yet they make fascinating reading when one disengages ego and enjoys the geographical variety. A while ago I decided to launch a project wherein an […]
ROCKIN’ ALL OVER THE WORLD #4 — USA
There will be a globe-straddling spread of ROCKIN’ ALL OVER THE WORLD posts, as promised. But right now, with the USA teetering on the brink of collapse into a terrifying Idiocracy, I’m thinking of my US friends. So Edition 4 of the series inspired by the WordPress Map Statistics (WorMS) is dedicated to anyone, anywhere, […]
HITCHCOCK CLASSIC
Pacing the house like a mangy old bear. It was a hot windy day yesterday. Today it’s cold and miserable. Welcome to Melbourne Spring, where blossom comes and goes on the whim of Aeolus. Go for a walk, instructs Ms Connection. I should. I’ve become indolent; flabby of mind and body. Getting frustrated with… everything. […]
PART ONE
There is a myth that no worthwhile progressive music came out of Australia during the 70s. This furphy needs addressing. There may not have been much ‘Prog’—in the sense of rock bands influenced by the Western Art (aka Classical) tradition—but there was an abundance of adventurous, innovative music. I can think of no better place […]
NO WAY STREET
It has taken a while, but I have landed on an album that captures 2020. It was released in 1979. Walk tall walk straight, spit the world right in the eye The stronger the wood, the straighter the arrow The eccentric 10CC formed in the UK in the early 70s, producing off-kilter pop music that […]
TURNTABLING THRU TIME
Not long after I took up residence in my first home alone (late starter, but that’s another story); as I say, soon after moving into a modest workingman’s cottage in inner city Kensington with a collection of gifted and thrift shop furniture and some of my mother’s cast off kitchen kit, I was listening to […]
1970 COUNTDOWN | NUMBER 1
It’s 1970. Although The Beatles have disbanded, no-one is lazing about. Surprisingly, Ringo’s was the first solo LP in the shops, followed by Paul, Ringo again, George, then John (with Yoko) in December. It is the quiet Beatle we are celebrating here. All Things Must Pass, a three record set, came out the day before […]
1970 COUNTDOWN | NUMBER 2
2. SANTANA — Abraxas What keeps a half-century-old LP fresh? Lots of possibilities, but in the case of Santana’s second LP, it is the superbly blended mix of different styles and influences that propels the record like an eternal multi-cultural street festival. Many know the infectious blues-rock interpretation of Fleetwood Mac’s “Black Magic Woman” or […]
1970 COUNTDOWN | NUMBER 3
3. MILES DAVIS — BITCHES BREW It shimmers, it growls. It moans and howls. There is glowing radiance and dirty work. With this double album—sometimes mesmerising and occasionally jolting—Miles Davis changed both jazz and popular music. Having done cool, modal and progressive (all that restlessness!), Miles and producer Teo Macero engineered this vast work from […]
1970 COUNTDOWN | NUMBER 4
4. CROSBY STILLS NASH AND YOUNG — Déjà Vu “Carry on” begins with purposeful strummed acoustic guitar before the voices enter, harmonising like a heavenly hippy chorus. Some slithery electric guitar creeps into the next bridge, instruments fall away for a sublime vocal refrain; here’s a little organ, a two word snap of Steven Stills’ […]
1970 COUNTDOWN | NUMBER 5
5. NEIL YOUNG — After The Gold Rush How did Neil’s nasal voice and the sparse country-ish feel of much of this album so capture the young man I was? Slumped under uncomfortable headphones in the Record Lounge of the Student Union Building day after day; lost, but listening. Neil’s voice is mixed way forward […]
1970 COUNTDOWN | NUMBER 6
6. VELVET UNDERGROUND — Loaded The idea of a polished, commercial VU record seems an oxymoron. But Loaded is both. It may not have been a chart success at the time, but over the years Loaded has gained status and regard in critical circles; Rolling Stone’s list of the best 500 albums of all time […]
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