Whenever I create a chart for the Music Spot it usually offers up a discovery or two: 

Firstly, it was that reading back over the tracks this week many seemed like only yesterday and not anything like 8 months ago, as in the case of me promising you another blast of Power-Pop. Which I will address right here. 

The second discovery will form a 'Part Two - The Return of Kerrang!', which will be on next week.

Today's track has been described as the best record Elvis Costello never made - which is a compliment. This is The Jags from 1979 with 'Back Of My Hand'.

"I've got your number"

Top 75

We've hit 75 on the Friday Music Spot.
Here's your chance to catch up if you missed any of the last 25. And a reminder of the Top 50 before. 

Want to listen to any again, just click on the appropriate number here: 
| 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | | 75 |

This one goes like this….

Last Sunday a Warren Zevon song came on the radio called "Desperados Under The Eaves". I'd not heard it in years. The next day I searched for it on YouTube and found there were different versions available of this track from his 1976 LP. One being a spot on the Late Show with David Letterman where Letterman introduces a cover of this song by Dawes. I thought I recognised that band name - and I did. A 2013 magazine had named their "Stories Don't End" album as one of their picks of the year. This led me to re-investigate them and this week's  STAR TRACK  is "Most People" by Dawes, from that very same album. Definite 70's feel to their music - Nice !

This story does end, but not before I've added extra links below, for you to listen some more:

> Here's that Late Show spot - with intro and outro by Letterman himself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A6MtHz-g4k
I like the comment someone has posted that says: "Warren, slamming cocktails in some other realm, caught a whiff of this version, pricked up an ear, nodded, and kept drinking."

> Lots of great tracks on YouTube from Dawes - try this one for starters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I74C2hClAsA&index=3&list=PLN4xr-XyeSVXkEmW6N4uiI9xIIBydOm4D
Nice sentiment that may 'All You Favourite Bands' stay together ….

Time for a commercial break - we haven't had one in a while:
The current tv ad for 'Dreams beds' features a cover version of The Cranberries 1992 song 'Dreams'.
Cue the original - I always loved the way you could hear the Irish accent of singer Dolores O'Riordan.
Dream On ….

Apparently there's a brand new 'acoustic version' of this song about to be released on an album called 'Something Else' - a collection of 'unplugged' and orchestral versions of their singles. 

I feel some Genesis coming on. Actually I've had the feeling for weeks now, ever since I discover on YouTube: Steve Hackett - Genesis Revisited - Live at the Royal Albert Hall.
The picture and sound quality is fantastic and the venue amazing but more than that the recreation of the Genesis that included Steve Hackett, by himself and the band is at times uncanny. Close your eyes and it's Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins singing.
The entire concert is available to watch (see link below) with my highlights being: Dancing With the Moonlit Knight , The Carpet Crawlers, The Musical Box, Afterglow, Fountain of Salmacis, Supper's Ready and this track "Firth of Fifth". Though this video is not the exact same concert, it is the same band line-up and I think an even better version. Nad Sylvan sings vocals with four brilliant solos: Piano (Roger King), Soprano Sax (Rob Townsend), Synthesizer (Roger King again) and Guitar (Steve Hackett) backed up by Gary O'Toole and Lee Pomeroy on drums and bass. (more info)
Great songs don't die, they just fade… out of our minds.

Not so much a Friday Music Spot as an entire evening out if you want !  (2 hours 25 minutes worth)

Catch-up TV isn't what it was !
Once you simply watched yesterday's programme, that you missed because you were out, nowadays you can catch up on an entire television series by downloading it to your TV digibox or similar device. The only thing with this is you're often watching a programme from some years ago. People using a flip open phone instead of everyone on smart phones, showing how quickly technology has moved on.
The same is equally true of the music used, as something new to you turns out to be from 2013 or before. We have been 'catching-up' with an American series called 'The Blacklist' - series 1 & 2 - so far have been caught ! What started with me making notes of the music I liked has become quite a long list. An artist by the name of Radical Face - the pseudonym of singer/songwriter Ben Cooper from Florida - has featured a couple of times. Off his 2011 album "The Family Tree: The Roots" - this is 'Always Gold'.

Nice 'sunny' video for company too.

More recommended Radical stuff > click here
We may visit 'The Blacklist' soundtrack again, very soon.

Spring is here !

Antonio Vivaldi's 'The Four Seasons' is one of the most well known works in Baroque music, and certain passages from "Spring" are instantly familiar. But have you heard this version ?

The background story is: 
German-born British composer Max Richter has disassembled them and fashioned a new composition from the deconstructed pieces. Richter has created an album that speaks to a generation familiar with remixes, sampling, and sound collages, though his method transcends the manipulation of prerecorded music. Richter has actually rescored the Four Seasons and given the movements of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter thorough makeovers that vary substantially from the originals. The new material is suggestive of a dream state, where drifting phrases and recombined textures blur into walls of sound, only to re-emerge with stark clarity and poignant immediacy. Violinist Daniel Hope is the brilliant soloist in these freshly elaborated pieces, and the Konzerthaus Kammerorchester Berlin is conducted with control and assurance by André de Ridder.

And this is how it sounds: "Spring 1" - recomposed by Max Richter

If you want more seasons > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oYWfJuMGMA

We have just spent five days surrounded by deep snow, minus temperatures, frozen rivers and reindeer in Lapland. Passing back and forth between Sweden and Finland our minibus driver insisted on playing music so far removed from this white sparse unpopulated landscape it soon became an inseparable part of a memorable trip.
Rio De Janerio at over 11,000 kilometres away and we were driving (and dancing) around to the rhythms of Samba music - and then on our last night he gave Margaret the CD as a memento.
This therefore is 'Samba De Janerio' by German pop group Bellini. Let's Carnival in the snow !

For those interested this track was a European wide hit in 1997 - the main theme is sampled from the Airto Moreira song 'Tombo in 7/4'.

Following on from last week's excursion into seventies British Prog Rock with Yes, I unearthed this flyer from 1972.
Advertising Thursday nights at the 'Toby Jug' pub in Tolworth. 
Given the size of the venue compared to the size of the bands playing: David Bowie, Manfred Mann and Status Quo it was probably packed out most weeks.
If you'd been there last night, in 1972, you'd have seen Atomic Rooster and no doubt they'd have played this week's STAR TRACK.
They had followed up the earlier hit single "Tomorrow Night"* in the summer of 1971 with "Devil's Answer". It reached No.4 on the UK charts and here they are performing it on 'Top of the Pops'.
Vincent Crane (keyboards) was the one constant member in an ever changing Atomtic Rooster line-up and as a result I can't tell you who supplies the excellent guitar work on this track. 
Hit it !

* Wild keyboards from Vince Crane and seventies style TOTP dancing in another video > right here.

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