ZERO-G-SOUNDS - REBEL SOCA : When The Time Comes

Rebel Soca - When The Time Comes

Soca? Isn´t that the ultimate party music? If you close your eyes, you may see a dancefloor teeming with revelers who, hands in the air, gyrate ecstatically to the liquid pulse generated by a throbbing, hypnotic bass and on-the-four bass drum countered with off-center percussion accents. Racheting rhythm guitar and stabbing horns supercharge the beat even further, making hip-shaking, belly-rolling, waist-winding almost an involuntary act. But there is even more...

Literally, the term "soca" abbreviates "soul calypso" and came into currency during the 1970´s when calypso was streamlined in response to the disco-dance juggernaut spreading over the world. Calypso, of course, has had a long and venerable history in the Caribbean, with variants in nearly all English-speaking and some French-speaking islands. One can easily trace its origins to the 18th century but its roots stretch back to Africa. In many West African societies singers and poets have traditionaly been not only historians but also mouthpieces for the people. They speak, obliquely, through satire and parables and commentary on everyday events, to the leaders, who ignore such criticism and advice at their peril. In contrast to the smiling, tourist-pleasing image propaged during the 50s and 60s, the business of being a calypsonian was serious business. Although soca lyrics tend to be "party-hearty" celebrations of love and life, a significant percentage deal with more serious issues; calypso´s tradition of social commentary remains vital with today´s "Rebel Soca". A minority of culturally-conscious soca artist have adopted a pan-african perspecitve, incorporating elements of reggae, african music and other caribbean styles into their soca. "Rebel Soca" brings together some of the finest conscious soca tracks of the 70s and 80s which combine unbeatable dance rhythms and some of the sharpest political lyrics in world pop. Often their lyrics are confrontatinal, politically-oriented commentary - a focus for the concerns of oppressed people.

Tracklist:

Side One

Afrika is Burning – Safi Abdullah

Spring Garden in Fire – Ras Iley

What About – Baron

Ring De Bell – Bro Resistance

Side Two

Hard Hard Hard – Black Stalin

When De Time Comes – Nelson

Can’t Find Me Brother – Red Plastic Bag

War Mongers – Johnny King

I first came across ’soca’ from my oldest friend Leon who had picked up an awful lot of musical vibe from going to Trinidad carnival one particular year, ages ago now and he came back with some platters we just couldn’t stop listening to . . . . . we continued the journey of calypso, mento, rock steady, ska, reggae and now soca! From Trinidad and Tobago to Jamaica . . . . . 

Awesome and something about shaking what’s yours!

Ras Iley -Inez classic 1993

Neil Young - Buffalo Springfield - Down To The Wire (Live 1965) | Zero G Sounds

Neil Young - Buffalo Springfield - Down To The Wire (Live 1965)

This bootleg collects some early and rare Neil Young recordings. 

The Wichita Falls tracks are solo acoustic (pre-Springfield). Very good sound qualities for the time. There are also two Buffalo Springfield outtakes. As well, there are two 45 single demos with Neil’s Canadian group the Squires.

Tracklist:

1 Neil Young– Sugar Mountain 2:45
2 Neil Young– Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing 2:57
3 Neil Young– Run Around Babe 2:39
4 Neil Young– Don't Pity My Baby 4:59
5 Neil Young– I Ain't Got The Blues 2:38
6 Neil Young– The Rent Is Always Due 2:49
7 Neil Young– When It Falls, It Falls Over You 2:36
8 Buffalo Springfield– Down To The Wire 2:30
9 Buffalo Springfield– Do I Have To Come Right Out And Say It 3:06
10 Neil Young– There Goes My Baby 1:43
11 Neil Young– One More Sign 2:00
12 The Squires – Sultan 2:31
13 The Squires – Aurora 2:07

Tracks 1-7; 10 and 11 were recorded live in Wichita Falls, Texas, 1-12-65

Tracks 8 and 9 are Buffalo Springfield studio outtakes.

Track 12, called "Sultan" and track 13 ("Aurora") are from The Squires' and Neil Young's first single, produced by Bob Bradburn, a DJ at CKRC in Winnipeg in 1963.

 http://zerosounds.blogspot.com

Speaking of Neil Young, here’s one from Zero G Sounds from 1970

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Danny By The River 

(Bootleg, Cincinnati, February, 25, 1970) 2 cds

Zero hat gesagt… :"Danny By The River" presents an almost complete soundboard from the first show on one of Neil Young’s early tours with Crazy Horse.

Recordings from this show have been released before on the two LP vinyl release "Winterlong". The acoustic set has been released on "Acoustic Tokens" and "The Loner" (along with tracks from the January 21st, 1971 Boulder, Colorado tape). The electric set has been issued as "Electric Prayers". This recording is listenable and considered one of the better tapes from this tour, but it is incomplete with only a fragment of “Don’t Let It Bring You Down” and “The Old Laughing Lady” missing from the first half.

This soundboard tape has been issued before on the two cdr set "Winterlong" on The Swingin’ Pig (TSP-CD-042-2) but the master reel-to-reel surfaced recently with much better sound. Seymour was the first to press it on to silver disc with "Danny By The River". There are faint traces of hiss during the acoustic set and the emphasis is upon the middle frequencies with an overall dull and quality. The mix of the instruments is very good in the electric set with only a cut eighteen minutes into “Down By The River” eliminating some words of the final verse of the song. The sound quality is very good to almost excellent and, compared to the audience recordings circulating, offers the best sounding document.

Young played six shows with Crazy Horse in February 1969 at The Bitter End in New York, but Cincinnati is the first show on the first proper tour with his band as he explains before “Broken Arrow”, “This is the first of a series of concerts with Crazy Horse, mostly in the east. Only one west coast gig. Even though we live there we play here.” They played ten shows over a month and this is one of the longest with sixteen different songs performed over an acoustic solo set at the beginning and a full band electric set in the second half. “On The Way Home” opens the show and is followed by the Buffalo Springfield tune “Broken Arrow”, which Neil sings in a very shaky and out-of-tune voice. Before “Dance Dance Dance” he becomes very chatty and asks, “should I play one of those up temp ones for you? I don’t have many up-tempo ones. I live up tempo but play down tempo. This is a new song. It’s going to be on the next Crazy Horse album… It could have been a big hit by Tommy Roe” which ends abruptly after two verses with Neil saying “this is where the chicks start singing and I can’t do anymore”. Only a minute and a half of the new song “Don’t Let It Bring You Down”, making its stage debut, is played before segueing into “The Old Laughing Lady”. Whenever Young plays a solo acoustic set he brings warmth that add a lot. The electric set comprises is the bulk of the show. What warmth is lost is balanced by the intensity of the band playing together. “It Might Have Been” makes its live debut and is introduced as a song Young learned at a church dance and “kinda hokey”.

“Down By The River”, which reached thirty minutes in the Philadelphia show following this one, reaches a mere twenty in Cincinnati and is the only epic performed. It isn’t noted on the liner notes, but the post show talking is tracked separately. It is three and a half minutes of the audience calling for an encore and an announcer saying that the band are finished playing since they’ve gone past their contract.

Thanks to Collector’s Music Reviews for informations.

Albums bought when they came out no.469 | Pauline Murray & The Invisible Girls (1980) | Zerosounds

Pauline Murray and The Invisible Girls - Untitled (1980)

"Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls" (sometimes called "Untitled") is the only album made by Penetration singer Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls, John Cooper Clarke's backing band. It was released in September 1980 on the RSO label.

Alongside core members Martin Hannett on bass and record production, Steve Hopkins on keyboards and Paul Burgess on drums, the band included several musicians from other Manchester bands: The Durutti Column's Vini Reilly and Dave Rowbotham on guitar, John Maher from Buzzcocks on drums, Dave Hassell on percussion and Murray's boyfriend Robert Blamire on bass. Like Murray, Blamire had been a member of Penetration until it dissolved in late 1979. With Blamire in the band, Hannett moved from bass to keyboards. Blamire and Murray reunited in the similarly short-lived Pauline Murray And The Storm, before retiring from the music business at the start of the following decade.



Tracklist:

"Screaming in the Darkness" – 3:36
"Dream Sequence 1" – 3:19
"European Eyes" – 3:20
"Shoot You Down" – 2:07
"Sympathy" – 2:47
"Time Slipping" – 4:04
"Drummer Boy" – 3:03
"Thundertunes" – 3:23
"When Will We Learn" – 3:35
"Mr. X" – 4:27
"Judgement Day" – 4:25
"The Visitor" – 3:44
"Animal Crazy" – 3:16
"Searching for Heaven" – 2:59


The three songs from the single "Searching For Heaven" are included as bonus track

The version of "Dream Sequence 1" on this CD differs from the one on the original vinyl release. It may be a completely different take or possibly a different vocal recording over the same backing.

HUGH MASEKELA - Still Grazing | Zero G Sound

Hugh Masekela - Still Grazing

Released to coincide with Hugh Masekela’s autobiography of the same name, "Still Grazing" picks up the Masekela story from Verve's summary of the best of the MGM albums, "The Lasting Impression of Ooga-Booga", and runs through the "Uni" and "Blue Thumb" material. The 1966 tracks are from "The Emancipation of Hugh Masekela", where the trumpeter mixes his florid horn calls and vocals with variations of the boogaloo, township jive, soul-jazz, and in Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Felicidade," a slight pinch of bossa nova into a hip, brightly colored cuisine that no one else was attempting at the time. 

As in the MGM days, Masekela is obliged to cover the hit tunes of the day, although "Up, Up, and Away" has more life and jazz licks than those earlier attempts. 1968's "The Promise of a Future" was the real commercial breakthrough - thanks to the out-of-the-blue success of the cowbell-beating "Grazing in the Grass," which improbably rose to the number one slot on Top 40 radio in those enlightened times. That triumphant track would be Masekela's last trip to the Top 40, whereupon he promptly used the exposure to shine a harsh light on what was going on in his homeland ("Gold") and America in 1968 ("Mace and Grenades"). The CD then jumps to a percolating, Echoplexed "Languta" from a 1973 session in Lagos, Nigeria, before concluding with a withering account of the South African coal-mining trains ("Stimela"). 

The package is given extra credibility by the original producer of these tracks, Stewart Levine, who compiled the album and also wrote a fond set of reminiscences. Many of these premonitions of today's world music scene have been gone for decades, and it's good to have at least some of them back in circulation again.  

here . . . . . . 

Tracklist:

1 Child Of The Earth 4:42 2 Ha Lese Le Di Khanna  6:45 3 Felicidade 10:12 4 Up, Up, And Away 5:32 5 Bajabula Bonke (The Healing Song) 6:29 6 Grazing In The Grass 2:37 7 Gold 4:10 8 Mace And Grenades 3:54 9 Languta 4:49 10 Been Such A Long Time 3:59 11 Stimela (Coaltrain) 6:28

Why you think you have heard Hugh Masakela before . . . . . because you HAVE!

Don’t Go Lose It Baby!

Geoff and Maria Muldaur - Sweet Potatoes (1972) | Zero G Sounds

Geoff & Maria Muldaur ‎– Sweet Potatoes 

In the midst of leaving the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and beginning the juggernaut that would be the solo career of Maria Muldaur, the happily singing and swinging couple made several sides which made expert use of a loose-knit group of players who had grown into masters of the folk revival arts. 

At times the choice of material on this album is unfortunately lazy; "Havana Moon" was a song that not even Chuck Berry himself could complete without boredom setting in, and the efforts here don't pay off much better. At the same time, the players here really don't need much more than the most basic framework from which to jump off and they are hard at it, pushing the music forward with a sense of purpose that inevitably helped it earn its hard-fought respectability. As a whole, "Sweet Potatoes" is something of a masterwork, rich and revealing, possessing the contagious enthusiasm of young musicians finding a personal voice in the rich traditions of the past as well as the relaxed sophistication that develops when these players are no longer novices. 

The Geoff and Maria Muldaur combination, when it was working, was also very special, a challenging partnership that also was something of an inviting nucleus to the players with the talent to be drawn into the fold. This album contains some of the better playing of harmonica man Paul Butterfield, removed from the hyper-drive excess of his blues bands. "Kneein' Me" and "Cordelia" are among the song highlights.

- Eugene Chadbourne

Tracklist:  

1 Blue Railroad Train 3:00 
2 Havana Moon 4:52 
3 Lazy Bones 4:50 
4 Cordelia 3:55 
5 Dardanella 4:30 
6 I'm Rich 5:11 
7 Sweet Potatoes 2:03 
8 Kneein' Me 3:18 
9 Lover Man ( Oh Where Can You Be ) 4:07 
10 Hard Time Killin' Floor 4:55 

Here . . .

Velvet Underground Drummer makes album (11991) Mo’ Moe! | Zerosounds

Moe Tucker - I Spent A Week There The Other Night (1991)

Zero he gesagt: With more help from her indie-rock bigshot pals (Don Fleming, Brian Ritchie), "...Week..." also featured the first (sort of) Velvet Underground reunion, with Cale, Reed and Sterling Morrison guesting on separate tracks. Covering "And Then He Kissed Me" was inspired, as is the inclusion of the accusatory (and appropriately titled) "Fired Up." From start to finish, it rocks like crazy.

Included on the album is a cover of "Then He Kissed Me", originally by the Crystals, as well as a cover of the Velvet Underground song "I'm Waiting for the Man". "I Spent a Week There the Other Night" was reissued in 1994.

The album has performances by members of the Velvet Underground, including Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison and John Cale. All four original Velvets play together on "I'm Not", making it their only studio collaboration on original material since 1968. Members of Violent Femmes also contributed to the album. Tucker stuck mostly to rhythm guitar

A truly wonderful unpretentious album that really rocks! and rumbles in its one fiery yet casual way. It also has the best cover of "(And then) He kissed Me...". Fun lyrics...Great playing...If you like Moe Tucker- get it Now!!!!"



Tracklist:

Fired Up 3:57
That's Bad 4:56
Lazy 2:24
S.O.S. 3:10
Blue, All The Way To Canada 3:48
(And) Then He Kissed Me 2:40
Too Shy 3:19
Stayin Put 4:16
Baby, Honey, Sweetie 3:15
I'm Not 6:38

The Slits - The Peel Sessions | Zero G Sounds

The Slits - The Peel Sessions

Upgrading an earlier disc that featured the band's first two John Peel sessions only, this ten-track compilation rounds up all of the Slits' BBC recordings, with the most crucial of their three sessions, the previously unreleased October 1981 airing, added in to remind listeners that the group's early reputation as a slipshod blur of punk-oid energy was only the first of the faces they turned to the world. In terms of classic punk energy, sessions dating from September 1977 and May 1978 are unbeatable, the sound of the unsigned, untutored, and -- in the eyes of many people -- unlistenable Slits crashing defiantly through distinctly formative renditions of songs that would not reach fruition for another year, and the completion of their debut album. "Vindictive" alone was not realigned for that disc; of the other six songs, all underwent sufficient reinvention to create starry-eyed converts of even the most disdainful of early witnesses. Famously, at the band's first BBC session, an anguished technician crept out to retune their instruments while the quartet was busy elsewhere. It doesn't affect their performance.

By the time the Slits returned to the BBC in 1981, their original vision had become totally skewed -- along with much of their early optimism. The Return of the Giant Slits, their long-awaited second album, had arrived to absolute incomprehension, and the band's future was already in doubt. The music they were playing, however, was the future. No longer the adrenalined D.I.Y. disaster that had clattered so alluringly across the early sessions, nor the dubbed-out hybrid of Cut, the Slits were now embracing a tribal thud that, while wholly anticipating the later fashion for world music, was so far out on a limb that even Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush had yet to clamber out to join them.

Lengthy throbs through "In the Beginning There Was Rhythm," the so-haunting mantra "Earthbeat," and (the aptly titled) "Difficult Fun" are readily superior to their vinyl counterparts, tasting much the same as the band's period live performances, but imbibed, too, with a questing tenderness that reveals just what a fabulous vocalist Ari Up was; her post-Slits recordings with the New Age Steppers caught many people by surprise, but the Peel rendition of "Earthbeat," in particular, proves there was no need for that.

Sometime during the mid-'90s, John Peel rated the first two Slits broadcasts among his all-time favorite sessions -- one reason why many first-time purchasers chose to overlook the repackaged Peel Sessions altogether. In terms of illustrating all that the Slits were truly capable of, however, the third session is even better than either.


Tracklist:

1 Love Und Romance 2:28

2 Vindictive 2:17

3 New Town 3:31

4 Shoplifting 1:31

5 So Tough 2:19

6 Instant Hit 2:32

7 FM 3:32

8 Difficult Fun 5:42

9 In The Beginning 11:03

10 Earthbeat / Wedding Song 8:31

From Zerosounds as always well worth the visit!

Sounds bought when they came out : SCRITTI POLITTI - Songs To Remember (1982) | ZEROSOUNDS

Scritti Politti – Songs To Remember (1982)

Zero G says : One needn't look much further than the song titles on the back of Songs to Remember to be struck with the thought that Scritti Politti had changed their scheme. Gone were the days of "Bibbly-O-Tek" and "Skank Bloc Bologna," replaced by brow-raising titles like "Gettin' Havin' and Holdin'" and, er, "Sex." Then there's the photo of Green Gartside -- he looks chipper! And at what point did his shoulders get so big? Oh, those must be shoulder pads. During a lengthy recovery process necessitated by a physical meltdown, 

Gartside found himself rejuvenated with a new agenda to become less like the Pop Group in favor of being more like a pop group; young communism would now be replaced by young romanticism. Influenced heavily by R&B and lovers rock reggae, Gartside opted to aim his group at the pop charts. After cajoling his returning mates to go with the flow, Gartside took advantage of producer Adam Kidron's rare availability and went about recording Scritti Politti's first LP with most of the material far from realization. With the addition of a saxophonist and a trio of backing singers, Scritti resurfaced with a rather scatterbrained record. Sometimes it sounds like T. Rex in miniature form ("Jacques Derrida"); sometimes it sounds like wannabe Dirty Mind-era Prince ("Sex"); sometimes it sounds like wannabe Young Americans-era David Bowie ("A Slow Soul"). 

Despite the well-intended but overt appropriations, there are moments of full-on glory that aren't sunk in their influences. The infectiously naïve "Asylums in Jerusalem" matches sunny reggae with '70s Stevie Wonder; the blue-eyed soul of "Faithless" is simply good, not simply red; and then there's the closing dessert of "The Sweetest Girl," a peerless block of lovers rock-inspired synth pop. In sum, there's as much to love as there is to skip. (allmusic.com)

Tracklist:
A1 Asylums In Jerusalem 3:12
A2 A Slow Soul 3:15
A3 Jacques Derrida 4:58
A4 Lions After Slumber 6:08
A5 Faithless 4:13
B1 Sex 4:20
B2 Rock-A-Boy Blue 5:49
B3 Gettin' Havin' & Holdin' 5:16
B4 The Sweetest Girl 6:16

I bought Green Gartside’s single Sweetest Girl as by a newly changed and re-charged Scritti Politti when it came out on a 12” single (e.p.?) and loved his unique sound. Well, I was a fellow art student don’t forget (poseurs all!)  The name Scritti Politti was chosen as a homage to the Italian Marxist writer and political theorist Antonio Gramsci. The correct spelling in Italian to refer to "Political Writings" would have produced Scritti Politici. Gartside changed it to Scritti Politti as he thought it sounded more rock and roll! Bloody art students!

 

ZEROSOUNDS CATCH UP No 4 | Buffy St. Marie

Now again I have mentioned Buffy early on and her influence via Donovan over here was an early inspiration both for her songwriting,vocal delivery and striking image that I was so drawn to. This from Zero G is well worth checking out and no mistake. It does appear from Zero’s notes to be something of an anomaly but for fans this is essential . . . if challenging! Truly a creative tour de force

Buffy Sainte-Marie - Illuminations (1969)

In the year 2000, the Wire magazine picked this spaced out gem from Native American folksinger and activist Buffy Sainte-Marie as one the "100 Albums That Set the World on Fire", originally released in 1969.

 Interestingly enough, it's a record Sainte-Marie doesn't even list on her discography on her website. It doesn't matter whether she cares for it or not, of course, because Illuminations is as prophetic a record as the first album by Can or the psychedelic work of John Martin on Solid Air. For starters, all of the sounds with the exception of a lead guitar on one track and a rhythm section employed on three of the last four selections are completely synthesized from the voice and guitar of Sainte-Marie herself. There are tracks whose vocals are completely electronically altered and seem to come from the ether -- check out "Mary" and "Better to Find Out for Yourself" as a sample. But the track "Adam," with its distorted bassline and Sainte-Marie throwing her voice all over the mix in a tale of Adam's fall and his realization -- too late -- that he could have lived forever, is a spooky, wondrous tune as full of magic as it is mystery and electronic innovation. 

The songs here, while clearly written, are open form structures that, despite their brevity (the longest cut here is under four minutes), break down the barriers between folk music, rock, pop, European avant-garde music and Native American styles (this is some of the same territory Tim Buckley explores on Lorca and Starsailor). It's not a synthesis in any way, but a completely different mode of travel. This is poetry as musical tapestry and music as mythopoetic sonic landscape; the weirdness on this disc is over-exaggerated in comparison to its poetic beauty. It's gothic in temperament, for that time anyway, but it speaks to issues and affairs of the heart that are only now beginning to be addressed with any sort of constancy -- check out the opener "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot" or the syncopated blues wail in "Suffer the Children" or the arpeggiated synthesized lyrics of "The Vampire." When the guitars begin their wail and drone on "The Angel," the whole record lifts off into such a heavenly space that Hans Joachim Rodelius must have heard it back in the day, because he uses those chords, in the same order and dynamic sense, so often in his own music. 

Some may be put off by Sainte-Marie's dramatic delivery, but that's their loss; this music comes from the heart -- and even space has a heart, you know. One listen to the depth of love expressed on "The Angel" should level even the crustiest cynic in his chair. Combine this with the shriek, moan, and pure-lust wail of "With You, Honey" and "He's a Keeper of the Fire" -- you can hear where Tim Buckley conceived (read: stole) the entirety of Greetings From LA from, and Diamanda Galas figured out how to move across octaves so quickly. The disc closes with the gothic folk classic "Poppies," the most tripped out, operatic, druggily beautiful medieval ballad ever psychedelically sung. That an album like Illuminations can continue to offer pleasure 32 years after it was recorded is no surprise given its quality; that it can continue to mystify, move, and baffle listeners is what makes it a treasure that is still ahead of its time.  - allmusic.com      

Tracklist:
01. God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot
02. Mary
03. Better To Find Out For Yourself
04. The Vampire
05. Adam
06. The Dream Tree
07. Suffer The Little Children
08. The Angel
09. With You, Honey
10. Guess Who I Saw In Paris
11. He's A Keeper Of The Fire
12. Poppies

ZEROSOUNDs | Catch up No 3 | CARLA BLEY 1989

Again another from Zero G and I don’t really say I collect Carla but I DO appreciate her and her place in jazz piano. Zero posted this lately and it is really worth checking out

Carla Bley – Fleur Carnivore (1989)

Zero G says "On "Fleur Carnivore", pianist Carla Bley deftly integrates her beautiful melodies into five complex, yet effortless sounding pieces. Taken from 1988 live dates at Copenhagen's Montmartre club, Carnivore spotlights Bley's very accomplished big band, which includes, amongst several others, trumpeter Lew Soloff, alto saxophonist Wolfgang Pusching, trombonist Gary Valente, tenor saxophonist Andy Sheppard, and organist/harmonica player Karen Mantler (Bley's daughter). 

The title track is a romantically bittersweet ballad swinger, which includes impassioned solos from Pusching and Soloff, while, in nice contrast, there's the buoyant, Latin-tinged "Song of the Eternal Waiting of Canute," featuring rousing solos by Valente and tenor saxophonist Christof Lauer. 

In addition to these extended pieces, there is the suite composition, "The Girl Who Cried Champagne (Parts 1/2/3)." This breezily swinging bossa nova features meaty tenor work from Sheppard and a minimalist harmonic solo by Mantler. Rounding out the set are the whimsical "Ups and Downs" and the gospel R&B tune "Healing Power." 

Combining surprising arrangements and pop song melodies, Bley creates a unique jazz language, setting herself apart from both traditionalist bandleaders (Wynton Marsalis, Thad Jones) and more avant-garde stylists (Muhal Richard Abrams, George Russell). "Fleur Carnivore" is one of Bley's best titles and good place to start for newcomers."

Tracklist:

"Fleur Carnivore" - 11:12

"Song of the Eternal Waiting of Canute" - 9:48

"Ups and Downs" - 7:05

"The Girl Who Cried Champagne Parts 1-3" - 17:15

"Healing Power" - 10:27

Recorded at the Montmartre, Copenhagen, Denmark on November 14–16, 1988.

MARTIN CARTHY : Sweet Wivelsfield 1974 | ZEROSOUNDS

Martin Carthy - Sweet Wivelsfield 1974 - Zerosounds

Martin Carthy – Sweet Wivelsfield (1974)

Zero G says: If the English folk revival of the 1960s had a single "father" and guiding spirit, then Martin Carthy was it. Carthy's influence transcends his abilities, formidable though those are -- apart from being one of the most talented acoustic guitarists, mandolinists, and general multi-instrumentalists working the folk clubs in the 1960s, he was also a powerful singer with no pretensions or affectations, and was an even more prodigious arranger and editor, with an excellent ear for traditional compositions. In particular, he was as much a scholar as a performer, and frequently went back to the notes and notebooks of folk song collectors such as Percy Grainger, scouring them for fragments that could be made whole in performance -- no "second hander," he used the earliest known transcriptions and recordings of many of the oldest folk songs known in England as his source, and worked from there.

By 1966, at the time he was cutting his first two albums, Carthy was already an influence on Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, and by the end of the 1960s was de facto mentor to virtually every serious aspiring folk musician in England. At least three major English folk-rock bands, Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, and the Albion Band, were formed either directly or indirectly with his help and influence.

First released in 1974 and produced by Ashley Hutchings, "Sweet Wivelsfield" is a classic Martin Carthy album and served as a benchmark recording for many other artists. The ominously chiming guitar chords of Trimdon Grange and the ingeniously borrowed melody of King Henry exemplify Carthy’s unceasing search for new ways to present old songs, a thread that runs all through this impressive recording.

Martin Carthy: vocals, guitar

Tracklist:

1 Shepherd o Shepherd
2 Billy Boy
3 Three Jolly Sneaksmen
4 Trimdon Grange
5 All of a Row
6 Skewbald
7 Mary Neal
8 King Henry
9 John Barleycorn
10 The Cottage in the Wood

This is really fascinating and from the godfather of British Folk and the greatest dynasty of Folklore classics and standards in the Waterson Carthy band and all his own works (this a man who plays guitar to his own (I will repeat HIS OWN) tuning of said instrument and keeping the British folklore of story telling and passing of tales and songs in the age old oral tradition!

 Enjoy! 

Chumbawamba – I Never Gave Up (12``, 1992) | Zerosounds

Zero G is worth never taking for granted from his personal cultural roots music to folk and blues classics we may think we have him pinned and then he posts stuff like this!

Always a CHUMBAWAMBA fan and have pretty mush everything (I think!) then he comes up with a 12” single I don’t have!!!?

Chumbawamba 12” ‘I Never Gave Up : Zerosounds

 Formed in a squat in Leeds, England, in 1982 Chumbawamba released their first single, "Revolution", in 1985. Up to a point they self-released most of their material on labels they ran themselves, such as Sky & Trees and Agit Prop. Their musical style has changed through the years, initially a shouting punk band, later recording some folk songs, then, with the "Jesus H Christ" album, they discovered electronic music.

One of their best-ever songs (from Slap!) in two pretty great remixes, followed by a remix of another great song (the title track from Shhh, here retitled "Laughing"). The first "I Never Gave Up" remix feels more like a single edit (though it only reduces the seven minute original to six minutes) than a particularly exciting remix, while the second is clubby without being anonymous (making excellent use of the original's imitation funk wah-wah guitar). "Laughing" is a relatively brief, bass-heavy but still breezy bit of pop that turns "Shhh" into an utterly different, and possibly better-than-it-was, song. Very nice.

Tracklist:

A I Never Gave Up (Rondo Mix)
B1 I Never Gave Up (Cass Mix)
B2 Laughing (Never Stopped Mix)

Hey, JACK KEROUAC! [spoken word for a Sunday] - Zerosounds

Jack Kerouac reads on The Beat Generation [1960] - Zerosounds

Zero G says: 

Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation is the third and final spoken word album by the American novelist and poet Jack Kerouac, released in January 1960 on Verve Records. The album was recorded during 1959, prior to the publication of Kerouac's sixth novel, Doctor Sax.

"Readings by Jack Kerouac on the Beat Generation" was the culmination of the author's short-lived recording career, a solo performance that transcends poetry and music -- it's literally spoken jazz, the artist improvising freely on the printed text of his own work in front of him.

Produced by Bill Randle, it was Kerouac's most musical performance, despite the fact that the recording contained only his voice and no accompaniment, using his voice and language the way a saxophonist might improvise on a particular melodic line or riff. He's spellbinding throughout, intense, focused, and even subtly changing voices with the work itself. 

Kerouac - Blues & Haikus 1959 - Zerosounds

Zero G says:

Blues and Haikus is the American novelist and poet Jack Kerouac's second album and was released in 1959. On the album, Kerouac's poetry readings are accompanied by jazz saxophonists Al Cohn and Zoot Sims.

The art-soaked, kicks-filled life of Jack Kerouac produced three records, and the second one Blues and Haikus found him in the studio with post-bop saxophone mainstays Al Cohn and Zoot Sims. While the record only sporadically attains the heights of its rather lofty ambitions, it remains a fascinating document, for it illuminates Kerouac as an artist of beautiful if problematic vision, vindicates Cohn and Sims as a pair of true pros, and brings great perspective to the mindset and milieu of the ‘50s American hipster.            

In the spring of 1958, just a few weeks after cutting "Poetry for the Beat Generation", producer Bob Thiele suggested making a second album - quite a daring notion, considering that the first album would prove so controversial that it wouldn't reach the public for a year - and Jack Kerouac agreed. Instead of pianist Steve Allen, however, Kerouac insisted that he be accompanied this time by two good friends, tenor saxmen Al Cohn and Zoot Sims. With Cohn doubling on piano, the resulting "Blues and Haikus" is a stunning duet between speaker and saxmen, working spontaneously in this peculiar mix of jazz and voice, in which the saxmen do get their solo spots around Kerouac's work. There's much more of a sense on this album of a conscious interaction here between Kerouac and his accompanists, and the album is more arch but also more intense and more imposing than its predecessor.

Tracklist:

A1: American Haikus (10:03) 

A2: Hard Hearted Old Farmer (2:17)

A3: The Last Hotel & Some Of Dharma (3:52)

B1: Poems from the unpublihsed "Book of Blues" (14:10)

Mississippi John Hurt – Make Me A Pallet - Live! : April 15, 1965, at Oberlin College in Ohio :: ZEROSOUNDS

 A constant favourite here is the legendary Mississippi John Hurt. My brother Steve brought home an early selection with many of his greatest songs on Coffee Blues, Make Me a Pallet, I’m Satisfied etc etc . . . I was barely a teenager when first I heard this humble mellow voice and the beautiful finger style that is unmistakably Mississippi John . . . . .as Doc Watson (another of my brother’s great heroes) sang Have you  Heard John Hurt!

So here is the maestro live from Zero Sounds . . . . . . 

Mississippi John Hurt Live in Ohio 1965 - Zerosounds

Zero says:

John Smith Hurt, commonly known as Mississippi John Hurt was born in the early 1890's and is one of those legendary blues singers of the same generation at Son House, Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Charlie Patton. He started playing guitar at age 9 and worked on and off as a sharecropper, recording for Okeh and Vanguard Records but the resurgence of his career came when he was invited to play at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival.

Mississippi John Hurt did a live 21-song set on April 15, 1965, at Oberlin College in Ohio, a scant two years after his rediscovery in 1963, and a year before his death in 1966. Hurt was remarkably consistent as a performer, whether you listen to his famous 1920s Okeh tracks, his rediscovery studio work for Vanguard Records, or the handful of live shows like this one: the skill and delivery is always steady, professional, and charming. Among the highlights in this set is his intricate and atmospheric slide guitar work on "Talking Casey," one of the few times Hurt abandoned his trademark three-finger guitar picking style. This concert has been issued in various configurations and sequences by several labels under different titles and with different cover art over the years.*

Tracklist:

Nobody's Business But Mine 
The Angels Laid Him Away 
Baby What's Wrong With You 
Casey Jones 
Candy Man 
Lonesome Blues 
My Creole Belle 
Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor 
Trouble I Had All My Days 
C-H-I-C-K-E-N Blues 
Coffee Blues 
Shake That Thing 
Monday Morning Blues 
Frankie And Albert 
Salty Dog 
Spike Drivers Blues 
Here I Am, Lord, Send Me 
Talking Casey 
Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight 
I'm Satisfied 
Richland Women Blues

* so many releases for this set I assume it is in the public domain. If you know otherwise and want me to do something about it please do me the courtesy and drop me line first