I first came across Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassiou - better known as Vangelis in 1975 with the release of his solo album 'Heaven and Hell' on RCA records, partly because I worked on the press ad. and we had a copy of the LP in the studio.

In fact I'd actually heard him before that, playing with Greek band Aphrodite's Child along side Demis Roussos in the late sixties on a hit single called 'Rain and Tears'.

Described as a "one-man quasi-classical orchestra" in most tributes to him there's mention of his film scores especially 'Chariots of Fire' and 'Blade Runner' without to much said of his various collaborations with Jon Anderson from Yes. 

Indeed Vangelis often seemed resentful that 'Chariots of Fire' risked overshadowing much of the rest of his prolific output of solo albums, ballet scores, a choral symphony as well as soundtracks for many other movies. 

Recorded and released in the same year as that Oscar winning soundtrack for 'Chariots' and on the 'The Friends of Mr. Cairo' LP was the Jon and Vangelis single 'I'll Find My Way Home' > 

My first awareness of his music came with 'Heaven and Hell' as side one closed with 'So Long Ago, So Clear' > click here, if you please. 

Vangelis sadly died last week in Paris. 

   

I was introduced to Lucinda Williams some months ago via a Robert Plant BBC Playlist.

The track I heard was 'Sweet Old World' a 2017 version of her previous 1992 release, part of a full-length reconsideration of her earlier work, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams re-recording her 1992 album 'This Sweet Old World'.

Why do this ? Well for starters her voice has changed considerably, it's got more gravely, almost slurring her vowels and a big change from the smooth polish of the original versions. It now has a less clean feel and many tracks are longer. 

Her husband and manager Tom Overby suggested that she re-visit the album. She re-recorded the album in 10 days with her touring and studio band: guitarist Stuart Mathis, bassist David Sutton and drummer Butch Norton and longtime friend and collaborator, legendary steel-guitar player Greg Leisz. 

Opening the record is a track called “Six Blocks Away” about a painful longing for something that, as Tom Petty once put it, is “so close and still so far out of reach.”

“That one really, I was like, ‘Wow, this is a surprise' ” says Williams of the ambling rocker, reinvigorated with a chiming, jangly Rickenbacker guitar line that evokes everyone from Petty to the Byrds to R.E.M. 

I love it ! 'Six Blocks Away' -

Check out other tracks if you wish: 'Pineola', 'Prove My Love', 'Hot Blood' & 'Sweet Old World'. From rockers to ballads - here's the link you'll need. 

 

  

At the end of my 'Rickenbacker Special' a month ago I suggested that was it "...for the time being, anyway". Naturally I had others up my sleeve and having mentioned The Hollies in my introduction >>>

I was recently "riding along in my automobile, my baby beside me at the wheel" when I thought I saw a poster advertising none other than The Hollies on Tour. Sure enough at the end of this month the band are embarking on a 60th Anniversary Tour. And the current line-up contains two original members: drummer Bobby Elliot and guitarist Tony Hicks.

I came across an interesting fact in relation to the band's sound and Tony Hicks playing a British made 12-string that sounded like a Rickenbacker: (see ad below).

Today's video has him playing the Vox Phantom in a performance from 1965 at the London Palladium - complete with that revolving stage. The Hollies 'Look Through Any Window' >

 

+ More pure nostalgia in this clip > www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6ObNLnXs5I 

See a 23 year old Graham Nash providing some background to the recording of 'Look Through Any Window' followed by an acoustic run through of the song plus some 'dodgy dancing' ! 

   

There's this song that has been playing in my head lately. And every time the news comes on, it's there once more. As the songs composer says when she introduces it "there's some songs you wish didn't keep making sense ".

Written nearly 60 years ago by Buffy Sainte Marie, sadly the relevance is still obvious. 

Donovan covered this song in 1965 and I was struck by it at the time and it remains so to this day. 

'Universal Soldier' - this not the way we put the end to war !  

  

Following on from last week's John Peel Record Collection it's fairly common knowledge that his favourite record was "Teenage Kicks" by The Undertones.

But I had never heard the follow up single "Get Over You" until recently. It's another slice of timeless teenage frustration in a pop punk song from the boys from Northern Ireland. And if you think they all look very young in this video, they are all 20 years old or younger.

Neither single was included on the original May 1979 release of the band's album 'The Undertones' - however, the following October's re-release of this debut album included both songs. 

You now probably want to hear "Teenage Kicks" right ?

So here's the moment John Peel played it twice in a row on his radio show [click here]

   

This Saturday marks 'Record Store Day' UK [more info]

Just the excuse I need to talk about Record Collections (sub titled "Dealing with dad's junk")

∎ PODCAST: The Collection - BBC Sounds (still available to listen)

Radio 6 Music's Tom Ravenscroft, son of John Peel, invites famous folk to the family home to flick through his father's vast record collection and pick out anything that catches their eye. ∎

I've been listening to these Podcasts over the last months and not only have some of the guests been new to me, so have many of the records played. Quite a mixture of music from the 60s, 70s & 80s featuring a fair amount of reggae, dub music, psychedelia and other oddities that have been dusted off, interspersed with conversations offering an insight into the Star Rating and filing system of the rumoured 26,000 LPs and 40,000 singles in the Collection. 

I've been taking notes, you'll be glad to hear and have picked today's track as chosen by Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet. 

The band is Tomorrow. Who coincidently recorded the first ever John Peel show session on BBC R1 21st Sept 1967. Tomorrow wouldn't last, their only studio album was released in 1968, but by the time the album arrived in record stores the psychedelic trend had already begun to abate. Guitarist Steve Howe would go on to greater things with Yes, while lead singer Keith Hopkins is better remembered as Keith West for the "Excepts from a Teenage Opera (Grocer Jack)" single.

Moving on then to today, this is 'Revolution' by Tomorrow which starts very weirdly, but settles after a minute before a wild ending   

< Peel was a self-confessed vinyl junkie :- 

He was loath to part with any of them, instituted a card index system in 1969 to catalogue them, and even had a shed built at his home to accommodate part of the groaning mountain of ephemera.

  

Today's the day, sixty-six years ago, that my brother joined me in this Mad, Mad World we live in. 

Being a life long Stones fan something from Messrs Jagger & Richards would be good. Though this famous composition comes with a twist, as you'll hear.

Ananda Shankar, nephew of well known sitar player Ravi Shankar, gives us his rendition of 'Jumping Jack Flash', from a 1970 LP release.

This post also doubles as a memory to all those Curry Houses of Hartfield Road, Wimbledon, that played Indian music to accompany the food and the flock wallpaper decor. Sadly all those restaurants have now gone. So let's ALL go Kaleidoscopic !  and imagine those poppadoms and half lager(s) of Dortmunder Union >

Hartfield Road Curry Houses: the Golden Tandoori*, Curry Royal & Chutneys and perhaps the original from the sixties the Taj Mahal*. [*not in picture] 

Sadly departed Curry restaurants plus Mica Cafe and Copperfield's Books - SW19 

   

This effectively draws my short 'Rickenbacker Special' to a close (for the time being, anyway). 

I came across this track while researching the piece and yet something about it felt like I wasn't hearing it for the first time (more on that below).

It's from the late 90s and is by a short lived band called Ultrasound (who have since reformed, as they do). Anyway this track 'Floodlit World' was released in various formats. There's a live video that clearly shows Richard Green [on lead 'Rick' guitar] in the opening 10 seconds. But the video is very fuzzy as is the sound (but worth a look at ). 

So I have gone for the longer FP [fortepiano] version, with better sound and a nice 1:20 introduction, before the guitars come crashing in... 

"Sometimes with guitars we can reach you" is a line from the song written by singer Andrew 'Tiny' Wood. While the chorus sings "Sometimes when it rains there's a rainbow" >

I initially saw this as a Midweek Spotlight but I like this kind of 'euphoric cacophony' so much, that I promoted it to Star Track status. 

I knew in the back of my mind I had heard of Ultrasound before. Sure enough I dug out an old giveaway Cassette from the late 90s that contained this very song, final track side two. [See pic here].  

P A R T   T W O 

Photos: (Top) The special Rickenbacker 12-string headstock and distinctive logo. 

(Lower left) A little band from Liverpool. George at the back with his new 12-string and John with his earlier Rickenbacker. 

(Right) A very young looking Pete Townshend of The Who in the mid sixties. 

Fender and Gibson are probably the most famous guitar names known. However the Sounds of the Sixties would not have been the same without the Rickenbacker. 

John Lennon acquired one from a shop in Hamburg in 1960, which he used throughout the early days of The Beatles.

In February 1964, while in New York City, F.C. Hall of Rickenbacker met with the band and their manager and gave George Harrison a model 360/12 (the second electric twelve-string built by Rickenbacker). This instrument became a key part of the Beatles' sound on their LP and film 'A Hard Days Night'. 

Roger McGuinn of The Byrds saw the movie and immediately bought a Rickenbacker 12-string.

Pete Townshend loved them. John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival also.

The music of The Hollies and The Searchers rang to the sound of the Rickenbacker too. 

The company was founded in 1931 by Adolf Rickenbacker, their electric guitars have a distinctive logo with a Soundhole 'slash' instead of the 'f-hole' and are famous for that signature 'jangle' sound. They enjoyed a renaissance in the 1980s with The Smiths, REM, Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, U2 and Smashing Pumpkins, to name just a few (and all favourites of mine). 

Here's a clever demo titled '20 Classic Rickenbacker Riffs & Licks' played by Joe George[s] >

 ... and so to today's Track:

 

I found this on an introduction to a YouTube video called "The Rickenbacker 12: A Short History, Featuring Jason Loughlin" - he says it's a little piece that's XTC meets The Byrds to underscore the intro. However he didn't name it, so I'm calling it 'Guitar Jangle' by Jason Loughlin > 

 

Hit replay ⏩ you know you want to !