These Foolish Things (1973)

It's a very catholic selection, I've given up trying to please all of the people all of the time. Some will like it for one reason, some for another. And some will presumably dislike it for the wrong reasons though I hope the general point of it will be understood. Its amusement value. I think... Bryan Ferry.

Bryan Ferry's first solo LP has a very strong Roxy Music presence (John Porter, Phil Manzanera, Eddie Jobson).
I don't know what Brian Eno's views on the record were!
It's a varied and sometimes camp selection that must have had lots of Roxy fans scratching their heads.

Some points about the originals:
Helen Shapiro recorded It's My Party before Lesley Gore; Big Brother and the Holding Company's version of Piece of My Heart was, at the time, better known than Erma Franklin's; Leslie Hutchinson was the first to record These Foolish Things. Ferry was apparently inspired by the Dorothy Dickson version (which I couldn't find anywhere); Bobby Vinton is usually associated with I Love How You Love Me, but here we have The Paris Sisters original (produced by Phil Spector).

Bob Dylan, Ketty Lester, The Crickets, Erma Franklin.
Elvis Presley, Helen Shapiro, The Beach Boys.
The Rolling Stones, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Four Tops.
The Beatles, The Paris Sisters, Leslie Hutchinson

A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall-Bob Dylan. River of Salt – Ketty Lester.
Don't Ever Change- The Crickets. Piece of My Heart – Erma Franklin .Baby I Don't Care – Elvis Presley. It's My Party – Helen Shapiro. Don't Worry Baby – The Beach Boys. Sympathy for the Devil – The Rolling Stones. The Tracks of My Tears -Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. You Won't See Me – The Beatles. I Love How You Love Me – The Paris Sisters. Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever – The Four Tops. These Foolish Things- Leslie Hutchinson.

UB40- Signing Off (1980)

Here is the début LP of Birmingham reggae band UB40.
I was only 15 when this came out and managed to avoid the ubiquitous 'signing on' card from which they took their name for another 4 years (I don't know why I bothered- I stayed on at school , which I hated- hardly attending and continuing to learn nothing, and then went to art college without having a clue what I wanted to do). For my father's generation it was different though, forty year old blokes who had lived generally through times of full employment, working from 15, saving money to give us (their kids) a 'better chance', waiting for the promised opportunity to buy their council houses. To end up on the dole was, for them, a massive blow.

I must confess though, being an anxious type who dreaded being in situations over which I had little control (such as having somebody tell me what to do), being on the dole was a blessing.
Whilst Thatcher was delivering her final solution on the working classes I was quite happy at home, listening to records and looking at jazz mags. I supplemented my income by doing 'hobbles' that I didn't mind- gardening, painting and so on. Because there were three million people in the same position it seemed like a safe alternative to joining the rat race. Sadly of course my anxieties prevented me from resisting the threats of the DSS and after 18 months I surrendered and got a job.

Gary Tyler

The opening track on this LP refers to Gary Tyler. He is now in the thirty sixth year of his sentence for a crime which he almost certainly did not commit. In 1981 the US Court of Appeals ruled that Gary Tyler's trial was "fundamentally unfair", and yet 30 years on he's still inside!
Read about Gary's case here...

Pinups

PINUPS was really my way of shaking off Ziggy completely, while retaining some excitement in the music. It really was treading water, but it happens to be one of my favourite albums. I think there is some terrific stuff on it...

These are all songs which really meant a lot to me then - they're all very dear to me. These are all bands which I used to go and hear play down The Marquee between 1964 and 1967. Each one meant something to me at the time. Its my London of the time - David Bowie

This was the second of David Bowie's number one albums in 1973, a selection of covers from 1964-1967, the era of his unsuccessful attempts to make it, first in a series of beat bands (Davie Jones and the King Bees, Lower Third, The Buzz) and later as a rather twee Anthony Newley inspired 'all round entertainer'.
Mick Ronson (guitar) and Trevor Bolder (bass) were retained from The Spiders From Mars line up.

And here are the originals:

The Who, The Pretty Things, Them
The McCoys, The Kinks, The Easybeats,
The Mojos, Pink Floyd, The Yardbirds

1. Rosalyn The Pretty Things 2. Here Comes the Night Them 3. I Wish You Would The Yardbirds 4. See Emily Play Pink Floyd 5. Everything's Alright The Mojos 6. I Can't Explain The Who 7. Friday on My Mind The Easybeats 8. Sorrow The McCoys 9. Don't Bring Me Down The Pretty Things 10. Shapes of Things The Yardbirds 11. Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere The Who 12. Where Have All the Good Times Gone The Kinks

This is the 500th post on Burning Aquarium- thank you all for your support.

The Black XI

There were black footballers in the seventies. More than I remembered in fact, as I discovered when looking for information for this post.
But they were still such a minority as to be considered a novelty.
West Bromwich Albion were thought noteworthy in that they had 3 black regulars in the first team, and manager Ron Atkinson (enmired in a racial slur controversy some 25 years later), was, according to Brendon Baston, very supportive of the 'coloured players', which didn't prevent him from labelling them The Three Degrees.

In November 1978, Viv Anderson became the first black player to represent England in a full international . Since Anderson's début 62 black players have played for England, 1 in 4 of England débutantes has been black and in the 367 internationals played by England since there have been only 41 matches that have not featured any black players whatsoever.The last time no black player featured in an England game was in the quarter-final of Euro '96.
When England defeated U.S.A. in May 2005 there were 7 black players in the starting 11; against Japan in May 2010 10 black players were involved for England.

But this picture comes from another age- the age of monkey noises on the terraces and bananas thrown onto the pitch.It's May 1979, and West Bromwich Albion's Len Cantello has a testimonial at The Hawthorns. Len Cantello's XI take on what is now referred to as a Cyrille Regis and Laurie Cunningham XI, although at the time it was billed as a Black XI.

I've struggled to identify the line up, and would welcome any contributions to correct my errors and omissions.
Back Row: ? Justin Fashanu (Norwich City), ? Chris Hughton (Tottenham Hotspur) Brendan Baston (West Bromwich Albion), ?,?, George Berry (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Bob Hazel (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Garth Crooks (Stoke City)

Front Row: Winston White (Leicester City), Cyrille Regis (West Bromwich Albion), Laurie Cunningham (West Bromwich Albion) ,?Remi Moses (West Bromwich Albion) , ?.

http://www.englandfootballonline.com/TeamBlack/Black.html

Datblygu- Ga I Fod Sion Corn?

David R Edwards

Ar yr un pryd, roedd DJ enwoca'r byd - John Peel - yn datgan mai cerddoriaeth Datblygu oedd yr ysgogiad gore i unrhywun i ddysgu'r iaith Gymraeg:

"You'd have to be a bit of a ninny to ignore Datblygu, this is the band that
makes me want to learn the Welsh language."

Here's the best xmas related record ever.
Despite the fact that my father's first language is Welsh, that I have lived in Wales all my life and that I was even (albeit accidentally) placed in the Welsh form in secondary school I can't translate the lyrics in their entirety. My relationship with the language has always been a bit thorny.
And how much money has been spent on implementing The Welsh Language Act 1993 (an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which put the Welsh language on an equal footing with the English language in Wales with regard to the public sector)?
Road signs, electric bills, driving licences, hospital appointments, application forms,everything bilingual?
According to the 2001 census 582,400 (20.8% of the population of Wales) were able to speak Welsh and 457,946 (16.3%) can speak, read and write it.

From the BBC:
When officials asked for the Welsh translation of a road sign, they thought the reply was what they needed.Unfortunately, the e-mail response to Swansea council said in Welsh: "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated".
So that was what went up under the English version which barred lorries from a road near a supermarket.
"When they're proofing signs, they should really use someone who speaks Welsh," said journalist Dylan Iorwerth.

Anyway, back to Datblygu: Ga I Fod Sion Corn? (Can I be Father Xmas?) here are some of the gems therein, musings of a lyrical genius:

The system causes cancer, not smoking…
I’m sick of feeling like Jesus on the cross, so please, can I be Father Xmas.
3 signs of insanity- talking to yourself, listening to other people, not talking to yourself.
I want Wales to be free, I want every village to be free, I want every person to be free…

Listen here:

Jody McIntyre- Integrity and Courage.

Ben Brown attempts to get Jody McIntyre to say 'it's a fair cop, guv, I was asking for it, getting wheeled along in a threatening manner'.
Unsurprisingly Jody McIntyre shows integrity, honesty and courage.
And he's bang on about the police trying to provoke violent situations.
Jody McIntyre is an eloquent spokesperson for liberty.
The cops are a bunch of cunts in the employ of an even bigger bunch of cunts.

Jody McIntyre's blog is here...

And if you want to complain about Ben Brown's attempts to make him sound like a public menace rather than a victim of police brutality you can do so here.

UB40- King/ Food For Thought 7" (1980)

Just for you audiophiles, a rip of a 30 year old single found sleeveless in a cupboard.
UB40 were hip and earnest. Then, by delving into the archives of Jamaican pop music and covering numbers like Johnny Too Bad, Many Rivers To Cross, Kingston Town and Red Red Wine they became phenomenally successful.
This was their début single.

To the gallows!

Probably the most encouraging image of the century so far...
If the people who long for change can keep this momentum up then there is indeed hope.

Sparks- Kimono My House (1974)

I was astounded and frustrated, nine years old.
Top ten countdown- at number 2 this week it's ...Sparks...
Number one records are significant when you're a kid. and this was the era when getting a number one involved selling a seriously eyewatering amount of singles (at least that's what the mythologists of seventies culture would have us believe).
There was , I concluded, no justice in a world where such a masterpiece as This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us could be kept from the 'number one spot' by the faux do wop and awful caps of The Rubettes - no white man should ever wear a cap like that.
And of course, the appeal of the group could only be enhanced by Ron Mael- forget the piquant wordplay which characterised his songwriting genius - here was a guy, 28 years old with the coolest job in the world, a pop star, whose image rested on not appearing cool. He was a schoolteacher, a librarian, Hitler, Blakey from On The Buses...

Hate Racism? Boycott Pizza Hut...

Muhammad Ali describes a visit to a diner in Louisville, c.1960:
I walked in and tried to order two hamburgers, and I was told, "We don't serve Negroes." I said, "Good—because I don't eat them either."

http://www.bournemouth.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=223830

Google vs Piracy latest....

See Totally Fuzzy:
http://totallyfuzzy.blogspot.com/2010/12/google-to-do-more-piracy-fighting-with.html

Soul

A revolution without dancing is not a revolution worth having.

Emma Goldman

I have , from a young age, been intrigued by the flamboyant displays of athleticism displayed in the dancing of Northern Soul devotees.

Was this a white working class precursor of breakdancing?

I have read that an influence on the evolution of 'b-boying' was Get on the Goodfoot by James Brown, a record that did not appear until 1972, and in fairness, Northern Soul was such an obscure cult, having very little influence on the culture outside of the dancehalls of Manchester, Wigan and Stoke on Trent, that the likelihood of it having in some way shaped events in New York is beyond the bounds of possibility.

I can only assume that there was some (almost) parallel and yet unconnected development, a reflection of a primal urge in the dance culture of the soul obsessed Mods (and those who followed in their wake) of the north of England and the African American culture of the Bronx.
Here is a selection of 29 soul records which compel you to move, even if like me you are long past your sell by date and the prospect of an all nighter makes your spinal column freeze.

01 - The Charades- Key To My Happiness; 02- Frank Wilson - Do I Love You (Indeed I Do); 03 - Velvelettes - He Was Really Saying Something;04- R. Dean Taylor-There's A Ghost In My House; 05 - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles- The Tears Of A Clown;06 - The Flirtations -Nothing But A Heartache; 07- Marlena Shaw- Let's Wade In The Water; 08 – The Dells - It's All Up To You; 09 – The Carstairs - It Really Hurts Me Girl;10 – Earl Jackson - Soul Self Satisfaction; 11- Jackie Wilson- (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher;12 – The Impressions - Can't Satisfy; 13 - The Originals – Suspicion; 14 - Mill Evans - Why, Why, Why; 15 – Willie Hutch- Love Runs Out; 16 – Chris Clark- Love's Gone Bad; 17 – Tony Clarke – Landslide;18 – The Prophets - I Got The Fever;19 - Velvelettes - Needle In A Haystack; 20 - Marvelettes - Too Many Fish In The Sea;21- Gladys Knight & The Pips- No One Could Love You More;22 – Dusty Springfield -Live It Up; 23 –Dobie Gray- Out On The Floor; 24- Gloria Jones - Tainted Love; 25 – Eddie Holman - I Surrender;26- Al Wilson - The Snake; 27 – Jimmy Ruffin- He Who Picks A Rose;28- Geno Washington- Michael (The Lover); 29 – The Barrino Brothers - Trapped In A Love.

Skinhead Month Pronounced Success!

Our monthly average for hits is about the 6,000 mark. This month we topped 9,000. Thanks for your support and keep on enjoying the music!