Sad news last weekend of the passing of guitarist Peter Green. A founder member in 1967 of the British blues band Fleetwood Mac in London, after he'd left John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.
This track would seem a good one to remember him by: 'Man of the World' - one of his best songs.

An alternative (and occasional) music posting highlighting something out of the ordinary. Perhaps of limited appeal, unconventional, experimental or just far-out ! Call it what you like (or switch it off, if you don't like). 

And more Cover ups - "Covers: often better than original" - "the best cover band on the planet" - just a few of the comments made about this group called Foxes & Fossils. 

No denying the harmonies are beautiful and spot on. The girls Maggie Adams and Sammie Purcell along with Scott King, Johnny Pike, Tim Purcell & Toby Ruckert, cover a range of artists. So here's a selection for you to idle away your midweek day. 

Take your pick of >

'American Girl' > www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw6nALtV3ZU

'Hopeless Hoping' > www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaqTl1jLdkE   (Love this crazy location at The Twisted Taco in 2013 - parking lot background, as per the picture below)

A fantastic (and ambitious) version of 'Suite: Judy Blues Eyes' > www.youtube.com/watch?v=S23VK1v9dB8

And finally 'Runaway' > a cover of the Love and Theft original - www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP_ozkEPD-M
All good stuff 

Foxes & Fossils: Maggie, Tim and Sammie

Name check to my mate Bobby in California for introducing these guys. 

Cover versions: They've always been around, like it or not ? And it can go either way.
There's the straightforward recreation of the original and then there's the interpretation or re-worked version. It's a personal thing and can often depend on your love for the original as to whether a new rendition works for you.
So covers can be tricky to carry off or, lets say, get away with. I know I feel there are many that should never have seen the light of day, while others really add something extra. 
Enough preamble, 1991 saw the release of a tribute album called "Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin", it contained 16 songs, by various artists and it's widely considered that this is one of the best interpretations of Elton John's 1989 original release. 
Sinead O'Conner performs 'Sacrifice'

> More 'Covers' coming your way - midweek >>

Dion DiMucci > simply Dion to you and I, has had a career almost as long as that of rock 'n' roll itself. From doo-wop music with The Belmonts, to solo hits like 'The Wanderer' & 'Abraham, Martin and John', on to working with Phil Spector in the 70s, while more recently a number of blues records have been made with contemporary rock artists.
Last month he released an album called 'Blues with Friends' - the list of friends is impressive (see here). Tomorrow will be his 81st birthday.
The new album contains this track performed with Jeff Beck 'Can't Start Over Again' > very tasteful guitar, as you'd expect. Happy birthday Dion

Check out the 'Here in America' track too, with Paul Simon: www.youtube.com/watch?v=geiaNspk5rY

This week 65 years ago "Rock Around the Clock" became the very first rock 'n' roll recording to top the Billboard Pop charts.  

The 45 single release had reached No.17 on the UK Chart the previous January, some 4 months before it even entered the US pop charts. 
It would re-enter the UK chart in November 1955, this time making the No.1 spot. The picture here is of an EP from 1957 (another of my parent's purchases) and the sleeve notes make for some entertaining reading, that I have to share. Trust me this is the exact wording: 
"This isn't quite rhythm and blues, not quite hill-billy, not quite Tin Pan Alley, not quite anything for which there is a standard definition. It's a kind of shaking, rattling and rolling music that shakes a lot of people, rattles others and rolls along all the time. Whatever it is, it's happy and a guaranteed party livener, and it's rhythmical and danceable. Most of the things we require of popular music seem to lie somewhere within these qualifications."
But here's the thing most people didn't think it wouldn't last ! Even those making and playing rock 'n' roll music at the time. 
The video is taken from the 1956 film "Rock Around the Clock". Bill Haley and His Comets in full swing and featuring dancers Lisa Gaye and Earl Barton (Lisa and Jimmy Johns in the movie). 
Come on everybody, we're gonna rock around ...

A pretty short track. So here's another (also on the EP). We've had counting, now this offers some assistance in spelling. Track called R.O.C.K. !!! > www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssQndYysTH0
Check out Bill Haley looking even more like Buzz Lightyear 😆 

 

–    E N N I O   M O R R I C O N E    –

Oscar winning composer of over 500 film scores, from spaghetti westerns with Sergio Leone to gangster dramas, no doubt everyone will have their own favourite composition by him, here's mine. From the 1986 movie 'The Mission':- 'Gabriel's Oboe'. 
In memory of Ennio Morricone who past away yesterday. Grazie maestro

Normally I wouldn't do this, but I think my reasons will become more than apparent shortly.
Ever since last week I've been on quite a trip involving a certain Arthur Lee and his band Love. It all began with the re-run of their 'live' performance from Glastonbury 2003, broadcast last Friday evening on BBC2. Continued with the story of Arthur Lee's prison sentence, and his release just 18 months before that festival show. Then his death from leukemia in 2006 at the age of 61. It's quite a read and reveals some mysteries that were never fully publicised, even by a reluctant and humiliated Lee. Here's part of it, from a post prison interview in 2002 >click here. 
On to the music and here I should say I know we have had the band Love as recently as last January on the FMS, however while these shows were advertised as Love with Arthur Lee the backing band was in fact called Baby Lemonade*: Mike Randle (lead guitar), Rusty Squeezebox (not real name), David Green (drums) & bassist Dave Chapple. Along with The Forever Changes String & Horn Ensemble from Sweden, it would be right to say they were playing Love songs, but Arthur Lee was in fact the sole connection to LA's legendary 60s band**. 
Finally, there's one song I have been playing continuously all this week, so it has to be this Friday's Star Track. 
'You Set The Scene' Arthur Lee's magnificent opus, which provided the finale to the 1967 critically acclaimed LP 'Forever Changes', is actually three songs all run into one track.

So we are heading back to Glastonbury one more time for:

This is the time and life that I am living 

And I'll face each day with a smile

The only video I could find is a squashed widescreen version***, but it sounds great nonetheless. 

* Name taken from a Syd Barrett track on his 'Barrett' LP ©1970.

** One of the first racially-diverse American rock bands, their music drew on an eclectic range of sources including folk rock, hard rock, blues, jazz, flamenco, mariachi and orchestral pop ! And influenced many famous bands that followed.
*** There is the entire show available (all 57 minutes worth) as a none squashed version. Click this link