Left of The Dial

Tonight's album is Let It Be by The Replacements. I've had this cd for a few years, and to be honest I haven't played it much, until recently when I was reading about the band in the excellent Our Band Could Be Your Life, by Michael Azerrad. This book is a terrific account of the US hardcore punk underground scene, 1981-1991. There are chapters on Black Flag, Husker Du, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, Minor Threat, Big Black, it's a fantastic read. It really sent me back to a lot of albums which I haven't played for a long time, including this one here by the Replacements.

Let It Be contains at least two bona fide classic songs which make it worth hearing for them alone - I Will Dare, and Unsatisfied. The Replacements played a sloppy, liquored up rock n roll, and along with Husker Du were a big influence on a lot of power pop bands which came after them, and who watered down their sound into a more commercially palatable brew. Original guitarist Bob Stinson is dead, his brother Tommy is in Guns n Roses, and what Paul Westerburg is up to I don't know. Let It Be has some brilliantly aching songs about being young, drunk and mixed up, sung in Westerburg's raw and ragged yowl.

When I Take My Medication...

Pure Phase - the second LP by Spiritualized, about whom I have eulogised several times already. Coming between Laser Guided Melodies, and Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, Pure Phase makes good use of bluesy, repetitious space rock, with constant allusions to very heavy drugs....quelle surprise.

Interviews with Jason Pierce tended to focus on 'are all the songs about smack?', pretty much until he nearly died of double pneumonia between finishing the recording and the release of Songs In A&E. He always claimed that the songs he sang did not necessarily depict his own lifestyle, and would get very shirty when people surmised that lines like 'When I wake up in the morning I take my medication / and spend the rest of the day waiting for it to wear off' might suggest that he spent a lot of time lolling around doing heroin. Hmmm...Jason, I think you protest too much.

He could have been mainlining Ovaltine for all I care, as long as he puts out records as gorgeously intoxicating as this.

My Wife Died in 1970

Proving that the CD selection on this blog truly is random, we find ourselves debating John Shuttleworth Live.

As I hope you are aware, John is a versatile singer songwriter from Sheffield, South Yorkshire. He lives with his wife Mary, his son Darren, and his daughter Karen. He's managed by his next door neighbour and sole agent, Ken Worthington.

This live cd features some of his finest songs to date, and some of my personal favourites: Modern Man, Save The Whale (its hump, its fins, its tail), and Shopkeepers in The North, to name but three. John's material focusses mainly on confectionary, shopping, DIY, his Austin Ambassador Y Reg, his family, showbusiness and the environment. John's best tunes often feature the Fun Rhythm, which goes down especially well in old people's homes and hospices.

To give you a feel for the treats in store, here's John with an early classic, Incident On The Snake Pass.

Up Front and Down Low

Teddy Thompson's third album, a clutch of classic country cover versions. A lot of people turn queasy at the thought of country music, assuming it to be rhinestone-studded kitchy bollocks about truck driving and divorce. These people are Wrong. Country music is great.

If you do feel uneasy about song titles like Walking The Floor Over You, I'm Left, Your'e Right, She's Gone, or indeed the promising sounding The Last Word In Lonesome Is Me (sadly not included on this album) then Teddy Thompson might be a good place to start. His version of George Jones' She Still Thinks I Care is splendid:

Radio One, you stole my gal...

...but I love you just the same!

There's not much left to say about Hendrix which hasn't already been said. This compilation of live BBC sessions is a terrific introduction to the man's music, including an hilarious Radio One jingle and plenty of cover versions, from Muddy Waters to The Beatles, Howlin' Wolf, and Lieber and Stoller. For someone who took popular music to places it had never been before, Hendrix was not slow to recognise his influences, most famously during this clip from the Lulu show in 1969, with his tribute to the recently disbanded Cream.

Alex B bought this album before me, when we were living in Hull, where there were two Hendrix tribute bands before the whole tribute band thing took off.

Hendrix's guitar appeared to be an extension of his body; music just seemed to drop off him. I don't have any of the origianl albums, just an old cassette of the singles ond B sides, and this CD of BBC sessions, but to me that's the essential Hendrix, and even though I might only hear him once every couple of years, it's always electrifying. No one has come near to redefining the sound of the guitar the way he did.

In my rock 'n' Rolls Royce with the sun roof down

Tonight's random selection is courtesy of Jim - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, by AC/DC.

I think this is their second or third album, depends on whether you count an early compilation which came out in Australia...either way, it's classic AC/DC - sleazy Bon Scott lyrics over gritty Angus Young riffs. To misquote Dr Johnson - a man who is tired of AC/DC is tired of life...

There is no Bon Scott era DC album which is not worth owning. I think my favourite is Powerage, which has an edge of melancholy alongside the smut, and the lyrics are fantastic. Only Chuck Berry has written better songs about cars, girls and drinking. The first two Brian Johnson LPs are also good, especially Back In Black, but to be honest they have been pretty mediocre since then. Which isn't to say that I would pass up the chance to see them live; and with a new LP on the way maybe I'll get the chance.

Dirty Deeds has a mixture of schoolboy sexism (Big Balls was not a serious contender for an Ivor Novello award), hard riffing rock (Rocker, Problem Child) and the sublime Ride On, which is unlike anything else they recorded, a soulful slow blues. Would love it if they had made a whole LP of this kind of stuff.