A year after John Cale's 'Paris 1919' LP, Lou Reed released 'Rock 'n' Roll Animal' on RCA Records in February 1974, shortly after I started working for a design company that had this as one of their account. (*See story below) 

Opening the album was a seven minute version of 'Sweet Jane', that had an intro added by Steve Hunter and played with Dick Wagner as a twin guitar 3 minute lead in to the spine tingling classic riff and Lou Reed walking on stage to great applause. 

The video is very grainy but the sound is spot on. 'Rolling Stone' editor Timothy Ferris described 'Rock 'n' Roll Animal' as "a record to be played loud" - so you know what to do >

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--   R C A   --

* During the summer of 1974 we were asked to provide various slides for a General Meeting presentation featuring RCA artists. Lou Reed had just released a new album 'Sally Can't Dance' and we therefore recreated his name in the same style as the record cover for his slide.

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"The idea is not to live for ever, it is to create something that will"  A N D Y   W A R H O L 

Mentor and manager of the Velvet Underground, Andy Warhol is very much a part of that Sixties Art Rock band as original members Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, Moe Tucker and John Cale. Following their debut LP with Nico and a second album Cale left the group in 1968, as did Reed, two years later.

John Cale was a miner's son born in Wales, a talented multi instrumentalist he moved to the United States in 1963 to continue his musical education. 

In 1973 he created his most “accessible” and most critically acclaimed album: 'Paris 1919'.

I have only recently discovered this record. Learning from reviews that: "Paris 1919’s songs are populated with field marshals, the ghosts of dead soldiers, decadently dilapidated movie stars and fallen nations. Hardly the stuff of Rock 'n' Roll. In fact, it’s easy to write it all off as pretentious. Yet, beneath the lush orchestrations and heady historical and literary references, 'Paris 1919' is a deeply felt and personal album. It inspires awe while keeping listeners lyrically at arms length. It invites you to get close, but not too close, much like John Cale himself. 'Paris 1919' demands to be heard yet understanding it may take a lifetime".  

Here then is the title track from this "baroque Art Rock masterpiece." - a very English sound and a lost gem. No more to say, other than check out other tracks from the album on YouTube >>> 

There's also a 2011 'live' version of this song available here. 

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). 

Stanley Kubrick's movie 'A Clockwork Orange' is listed as a1971 film release. Which is confusing because while the film premiered in New York City on 19 December 1971, it was not released in the UK until 13 January 1972. So, by my reckoning, I wouldn't have seen it at the cinema until February. 50 years on and the dystopian tale that used a soundtrack of Ludwig Van Beethoven played on a moog synthesizer by 'Switched-On-Bach' creator Walter (but now Wendy*) Carlos, sounds as weirdly remarkable as ever. 

Certain restrictions on showing the movie may have resulted in videos not remaining on YouTube for terribly long. I hope this stays long enough for you to enjoy the film's irony of 'Ode to Joy'.

Warning: Video contains disturbing (if distorted) scenes and images

 

  < 'Viddy this - all you devotchkas and malchicks'  >  

 

*All reference to Walter Carlos in history has been erased to read Wendy. This interview goes some way to explaining this transition: < story > 

  

Having signed off last week with a reference to anti-consumerism in a Janis Joplin song, here's another from 20 years later expressing the same sentiment.

According to the band, the lyrics are "an attack on the hollowness of a lifestyle centred around the consumerism which is offered by capitalism, describing how society expects young people to conform". 

30 years ago yesterday 'Generation Terrorists' was released on 10 Feb 1992. The 5th single taken off the album was 'Motorcycle Emptiness' which came out in June as a 3:35 minute edit. The album version was 6:09 long [and there was a short edit - official video, filmed in Japan at 5:06] - see today.  

At the time I had bought the 4-track CD digi pak [6:09 version] and I had a cassette recording of the album before later picking up the CD cheaply, plus I have the 5:06 take on a Greatest Hits CD. I guess you could say I well and truly consumed this track.   

Ironically the last line of the song is "Everlasting Nothingness" - quite the opposite I think !

Today's Star Track artists are the Manic Street Preachers >

This video has Richey Edwards in it, who mysteriously disappeared in 1995 [aged 27] - it's quite a story if you're interested - [finding a single link to this isn't easy, so I'll leave it you to look it up]. There's also a neat video, minus the band but plus the lyrics and is the [6:09] version. Sing along here

- NME listed 'Generation Terrorists' as the 18th greatest debut album from the last 50 years !

   

Concluding my trilogy of tripping back in time and going to San Francisco (flowers in your hair optional) and the final 'J' artist to be connected.

Big Brother & the Holding Company formed in 1965, appearing live from late that year they went on to become the house band at the Avalon Ballroom. 

Feeling the need for a strong vocalist, manager Chet Helms suggested an old friend from his Austin, Texas days: Janis Joplin. She was considering joining The 13th Floor Elevators at that time, however she traveled to San Francisco and debuted with Big Brother at the Avalon on June 10, 1966.

"It took a while for some of the band's followers to accept the new singer. Her music was completely different from their very experimental and unconventional sound, but with Joplin, they became more disciplined musicians, their songs adopted a more traditional structure and the band started to increase its popularity in the San Francisco psychedelic scene". 

Janis Joplin left the band in 1968, following the recording of the album 'Cheap Thrills', to pursue a successful solo career. 

In September and October 1970, she recorded tracks including 'Cry Baby' for the album 'Pearl', posthumously released in 1971, three months after her death on October 4, 1970.

 

Released as a single and in the charts June 1971, the B-side was the final song she recorded: 'Mercedes Benz' (as in 'Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?') - a rejection of consumerism !

-   P  O  S  T  E  R  S   -

" were the main avenue for advertising events "

Some of the amazing creative art posters from the San Francisco psychedelic era © 1967.

(Top left) Big Brother & the Holding Company at the Avalon Ballroom.

(Top right) A 'New Year Bash' promoted by Bill Graham at the Fillmore Auditorium, involving Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead & Quicksilver Messenger Service. 

(Bottom left) RCA Victor advert for "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane. 

(Bottom right) Janis Joplin in concert at the Avalon. 

   

Continuing on from last week's Grateful Dead uncovered to another famous name in 60s San Francisco folklore: Jefferson Airplane. 

These bands performed at dance venues and 'happenings', engulfed by a psychedelic light show. 

"While the dance floor was dark, the walls were blazing with light. The light-show artists stationed on the balconies had found ways to cover three whole walls of the dancehall with brilliant, flowing coloured lights, like abstract paintings. Alternating with the liquid projections might be kaleidoscope patterns, or slides of faces, flowers or mandalas."

Jefferson Airplane formed in 1965. Their 1967 break-out album 'Surrealistic Pillow' was one of the most significant recordings of the Summer of Love. Tracks included 'White Rabbit' and 'Somebody to Love' and this Marty Balin composition [written like other songs under the influence] called 'Comin' Back to Me' >>> 

Jerry Garcia was listed as 'spiritual advisor' on the album cover and played guitar, though on which tracks, is shrouded in suspect memories from those present at the recordings.   

✿ Available from the Psychedelic Shop on Haight Street in 1966: The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead - Timothy Leary wrote

Quote [from the book] "Whenever in doubt, turn off your mind, relax, float downstream" 

On 'Tomorrow Never Knows' - John Lennon wrote "Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream"  

Just a suggestion ... 

 

Peace & Love on the corner of Haight and Cole Street, Haight-Ashbury district, San Francisco.

Jerry Garcia mural. Photo by yours truly. © 2018 

   

Over the coming weeks I have some tracks that are loosely connected to one another. Not just because the artists have names starting with a letter 'J' (which they do, by the way). It's going to be some trip, depending on what your on ?
I've been reading a lot about San Francisco in the 60s: 'Summer of Love / Psychedelia' era. Exploring the scene and the dance venues: The Avalon Ballroom & Fillmore West, promotors Matt Helms and Bill Graham and being fascinated by all those 'unreadable' posters once again.
You think you know a lot, but the more you read the more you realise how much you don't know.
That includes the music. Bands like Big Brother & the Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Grateful Dead.
Jumping forward a few decades this exploring began after I watched 'Masked and Anonymous', a 2003 movie involving Bob Dylan (as Jack Fate) leading an all-star cast in a dark and unusual musical tale. The film includes naturally Dylan songs, old and new, by himself and others and Jerry Garcia singing 'Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)' was a highlight for me. So that's todays Star Track. No video I'm afraid for the Jerry Garcia Band but I do have a bit of a 'Linkathon' for a concert considered exceptional from that time in 1991, all available on YouTube. See below for that.
More of the San Francisco scene next time… for now, let's be Grateful for 'Señor' Garcia >

Linkathon: The concert footage is often dark and fuzzy but jam packed with great songs. Many tracks are 10 minutes long and the guitar playing of Jerry Garcia and some killer keyboards from Melvin Seals are not to be missed. 

More Dylan with - 'I Shall Be Released' [10:47]

Concert Part 1 - [1:07:02] 

Concert Part 2 - [1:23:02] 

Entire two and a half hour concert [not 'live' just a still video]  

There's a CD of this concert: Titled 'Pure Jerry' (Coliseum, Hampton, VA, November 9, 1991) - available to download on Amazon.  

And finally look out for a related photo from me, to be posted next week.  

   

In an attempt to feel somewhat warmer let's head off 'Down-Under' for some upbeat Antipodean sunshine in the shape of Paul Kelly.

I noticed last year that we hadn't had any 80s music in ages (only 1 track in 2021, by my reckoning). So let's put that to rights by travelling down the road with Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls 'To Her Door', from their 'Under the Sun' LP.

I would have driven around in 1988 to this track and it sure is a great driving song - don't be fooled by the acoustic guitar it flippin' rocks !

This concert video, filmed at the Empire Theatre, Toowoomba, Queensland, in August 2007 is 20 years on from it's original release. He has a new backing band and still sounds unmistakably Australian !

Let's go over 'live' to Queensland >

Warning: There's some swearing