RH SINGLE OF THE WEEK - Soundheads /// Loop

Television - Little Johnny Jewel parts 1 & 2 (1975)

30/01/2023

This is a fucking hard one Soundheads.
I’m so wrapped up in this pick (reasons follow) and although this page is in danger of being retitled Death Of The Week, I’m going all out.

Yes, it’s not Marquee Moon or Foxhole.
Get back into Adventure peoples, it’s not MM for peals and chimes and stunning production of Andy Johns, but it’s still a great record. ‘Days’ brought a tear to my eye today godammit.

I’ve said it before elsewhere a long time ago, but without Little Johnny Jewel in this form, there would not have been Spinning Pts 1&2
That’s a fact, m’aam.

Talking on our second single to be, I was in the great company of Mr Jeff Barrett, who ran HEAD, the label we were doing the business with.
I said to him, I’ve got an idea for another 12” single but I want to do a different version 7” and it’s got to have a dinked jukebox style hole in it.
I made no bones to him or to you or anyone else I can bore the shit out of…
“I wanna make it like Little Johnny Jewel pts 1&2, Jeff” spoken thru a haze of Marlboro smoke and a curtain of hair.
His eyes lit fires and well, you know the score from there.

Now, I ain’t saying it is LJJ and this is about Verlaine not Loop.
I fucking adore Televison, I ain’t no Tom Verlaine or Richard Lloyd… trust me.

But that Spinning 7” was a labour of love.
I had to fight the temptation to even make the label red.
But the cheap print style and layout of the ORK label is in its DNA, 100%

So the Neon Boys have left town, Richard Hell is just about going blank somewhere else and we have this rough diamond.
What a fucking weird single to make!
But it has charms in spades, and after the freestyling intro, the second the “duh duh duh” riff hits, you’re in Verlainesville baby.
The jazzy skittering breaks have so much NYC funk in them, it should be copyrighted.
Like I said, it’s not
Marquee Moon, it’s most definitely NOT Marquee Moon.
But you can smell the dogshit from CBGBs all over it. It’s tense, it’s angular, it’s everything you want from Tom Verlaine.
It probably cost a dollar to make, there’s nothing of the peal and the chime that came soon after when Elektra chucked in the moolah and the holy pairing of Verlaine’s clarity of thought met with Andy Johns, who really knew how to mic the shit out of an amp.

Anyway ignore all that.
Follow the tale of Little Johnny Jewel for what it is.
If you want to be as nerdy as me, there are some absolutely astounding live versions that piss all over this, but I’m here because I miss the shit out of Verlaine already and it’s only been a day.
Simply no one else like him.
That’s another fact, m’aam.

I stood next to him outside our dressing rooms in Portugal when we both played Primavera there a few years ago.
Both of us smoking furiously.
I was hyping myself up to be a weak-kneed fanboy and tell him how much I loved him and his band.
Any second now…

Then a distant voice from behind the security railings shattered it all into a million shards.
“Hey, hey… Is Billy Ficca there?”
“I’m a really old friend and I wanna say hi… could you get him for me?”

Being the kind soul I can be at a stretch, I went to get Billy and tell him his old mate Octopus or whatever the fuck it was, is outside.

I came back for another ciggie immediately and to part with my blah on Verlaine.
Only to see him get in the back of a cab and drive back to the hotel.
Thanks Octopus, or whatever your fucking name was.

And now, that’s all I got.
I never managed to part with my blah on Tom.
And that makes me fucking sad.

RIP TOM VERLAINE

I’m listening to the rain
RH X

The Byrds - Why (1966)

20/01/2023

Greetings Soundheads!

Another SOTW and sadly, another passing of a legend,
David Crosby.

This original version of Why was the B Side of 8 Miles High and a rare(ish) departure from Gene Clark’s scribes.
A bit basic than the re-recorded version for the 5D lp, but you hear Croz’s vocals better.

He was a self-admitted asshole and pretty much fell out with every band member he shared a studio with, but there’s no denying his voice was fucking angelic.

Don your green cape with pride and let’s have some serious Byrdage this weekend, not only for Dave, but the genius Gene Clark too.

Green Cape

Ain’t saying much else.
Never really gave much of a shit for CS&N, even when moody Neil was with ‘em.
But always had time for Croz, even when he was a shithead.

Fly well DC, fly well.

RH X

Yardbirds - Heart Full Of Soul (1965)

12/01/2023

Fuck!
Fuck fuck fuck fuck!

Please 2023 don’t be as brutal as ‘22.

Has to be SOTW however obvious it may be.

That lead intro, the sublime Keith Relf vocal, the Morricone / Leone western haunting backing vocals and Spanish guitar rhythm.

Beck’s first outing with Yardbirds and he’s already stamped all over Clapton’s then blues purism (soon changed yer mind eh, Eric?) and made the ‘birds go from a great band to a brilliant band.
(Not forgetting, a great Graham Gouldman tune, one of many he wrote at the time that never really caught fire when he did them but worked fantastically for others)

So,
Forget the silly BLOW UP breaking of an obviously fake/shit guitar club scene and revel in Beck period Yardbirds as much as you can this weekend.

I’m not all over technique, which you already know by listening to my attempts at guitar wrangling, more guitar strangling… but he really was The Guitarist’s Guitarist.
Out there on his own for simply the way he approached making records, his ideas were just different.
Always happy to let others have the spotlight and just play his licks.

Here’s to you Mr Beck, I’ll be having a top fuel Margarita or two in your name this weekend.
Hope you’re having fun with old mates and the hot rods are fast and beautiful wherever you land.

RH x

PS – check out this live clip and watch how self-effacing JB was, that little half smile/ laugh he does.
But Relf was impeccably fucking cool.

Big Star - September Gurls (1974)

07/01/2023

Belated New Years greetings Soundheads!

Wishing you all health and good whatevers you can glean from the shit show going on out there.

So…
Alex Chilton and the ever awesome Big Star.
It’s no secret of my absolute adoration of both or the fact that I have cast a few doubts , amongst some, of my mental state when I claim readily that Radio City (imho) is the better album between that and #1 Record.
We won’t talk of 3rd here, as I view that as almost a completely different entity in pretty much everything except the fact it’s Alex Chilton, but let’s face it fact fans… it’s not really Big Star in style or content.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fantastic record for the most part, but it just doesn’t match the first two as being Big Star.
So here I am, talking about it after all… ffs!

On to the meat!
Step into any student hangout /indie disco/ shamble fest in the early 80’s and by fucking Christ, you’d hear September Gurls.
It was omnipresent.
I honestly could say that I don’t ever recall hearing any other Big Star out and about in the years of my wandering aimlessly from town to town on search of thrills.
But as sure as eggs are indeed eggs, SG would trot out in all it’s power pop gaiety whatever the weather, and everyone would do that fringe swinging, leaden armed shimble shamble dance that indie kids did so well back then.
But as much as I take the piss, what a fucking joy it was to hear it, even if you’d played it backwards searching for Alex’s satanic messages to the lord of the underworlds or his recipe for the perfect Cannoli at home and found nada, it was a few minutes of unadulterated joy even when your favourite suede shoes had been unceremoniously stamped on by a galoot not a minute before and they’d tipped most of their snakebite over them as well for good measure…
Good Times!

So for the first SOTW of a new year, put aside your loathing of the Tories ( if you don’t hate them, shame on you ), the shitshow GOP or whatever current bunch of asshats make life miserable for the country in which you dwell… and shamble sisters / lovers!
I guarantee you’ll have a smile on your face. Do it, it’s good for you!

With love
RH X

The 12 Haze of Xmas

25/12/2022

Greetings of the season Soundheads!

No real blah from me right now, but I have put together a proper sweet festive selection box, which hopefully nobody will leave the last one because nobody really likes Brazil nuts.

The 12 Haze of Xmas.

So get festive and tuck into this assortment of delights and have fun!
But as your Ma or Granny used to say… don’t make yourself sick and leave room for your dinner!

Have fun everyone and I hope your festive season is filled with peace, love and copious amounts of shit that’s bad for ya!

Santa RH
X

Cabaret Voltaire “Invocation”