Blues Run the Game: The Strange Tale of Jackson C Frank 

Posted on by Opher

It seems that there is going to be a documentary about the fabulous Jackson C Frank entitled: Blues Run the Game: The Strange Tale of Jackson C Frank. I can’t wait. I’ve been a huge fan ever since I heard his debut and sadly, his only album in 1965. Jackson was a good friend of Roy Harper’s back then and Roy wrote the song ‘My Friend’ for him.

I was fortunate enough to see Jackson play and have a chat with him. I wrote about it in the piece I published a number of years back.

I can’t wait to see the documentary!

Jackson C Frank at a small club on Ilford High Street in 1969

 

Jackson C Frank at a small club on Ilford High Street in 1969

Jackson C frank was a major singer-songwriter from the sixties though not too many people would know that. He was a regular at Les Cousin,  partnered Sandy Denny and persuaded her to give up her job and sing full time, was a close friend of Roy Harper (who wrote the song My Friend for him) and was a great influence on all those songwriters of that era. His first album, recorded in 1965, being groundbreaking. A beautiful, melodic album of well-crafted introspective songs that are haunting.

The Contemporary Folk scene had taken off in a big way in England. Donovan had popularised it and Dylan’s success had made acoustic music a viable commercial exercise but the whole scene had blossomed underground with the likes of Davy Graham, Bert Jansch and John Renbourn. It had different roots to that of Greenwich Village in America, although there was a lot of overlap.

I stumbled across this folk phenomenon via a number of sources. When I was fourteen I had been introduced to Woody Guthrie and Big Bill Broonzy by a girlfriend of mine. Then Donovan had started playing on Ready Steady Go. It seemed to fit together. Donovan at the time put the same sign on his guitar that he’d stolen from Woody – ‘This machine kills fascists’. I liked that.

Then Robert Ede and Neil Furby played a part in my education. They were two school-mates. Neil nicked one of my girlfriends but he introduced me to Bert Jansch and John Rebourn, so I suppose that was a fair exchange. Bob had bought the Jackson album the day it came out (he was way ahead of the game) and lent it to me. I loved it. I was hooked right from that first hearing. It was perfect – the voice, guitar, melodies and lyrics all gelled for me. I immediately went out and bought my own copy.

So contemporary Folk Music became a big part of my life.

The final culmination of that time was to discover Roy Harper in Les Cousins with his first album. That blew them all away. But that’s another story.

Back in those halcyon days of the mid-sixties, 1965-66, prior to the advent of Roy, I spent a lot of time in my room with my old dansette record player, playing those first albums by Bert and John. I just loved the passion, integrity and guitar. But the album I played most was Jackson’s. Those songs were absorbed into my being. I knew them inside out.

For over three years I enjoyed that album. When I went to college I met up with Pete and we roomed together for two years. It was a delight to discover that he not only also adored Jackson but could play all his songs. Pete was an outstanding guitarist.

Most of the time in London I never saw Jackson advertised anywhere though he did play the folk scene and was a regular at Les Cousins where I went quite often. I looked out for him without success. But there was so much going on in the Folk and Rock scene that it was not foremost in my mind.

Then in 1969 Pete and I discovered Jackson billed at the Angel in Ilford High Street. The Angel was a pub with a room above it for small music events.

We arrived early. It was set out with a number of round tables with chairs around them. We purloined a table at the front. There were only about thirty people in the Audience. Jackson was quiet and softly spoken, very laid back. He played his songs faultlessly. They were all the songs from that album with nothing new. We clapped each rendition madly. It was brilliant to see him in the flesh. His playing was faultless. His personality shone and those songs were sparkling diamonds.

I would have loved to have heard some other new songs as well though. We were hungry for more of these extraordinary compositions. It was not to be.

After the concert everybody else left but we stayed behind and chatted.  Jackson was very friendly and appreciative. He told us that there was no fabled second album or live performance. He said he had not written any other songs but that turned out not to be quite true. The song Golden Mirror, which has just been discovered from a TV programme, is from that period. I do not think he had the confidence in his new material.

Jackson left Pete and I with the sense of a really warm and shy character who was very approachable. We both thought he was a genius.

The next week he was supposed to have turned up for a guest appearance (the only guest – an honoured spot) at Roy Harper’s fabled St Pancras Town Hall gig. He never showed up. I asked the guy he had been with in Ilford, who did turn up to the Roy gig. He informed that Jackson would have come but he was unwell.

I never saw him advertised again. He seemed to evaporate into the night.

I spoke to Roy about it much later and he sadly shook his head and told me he had not seen him again either.

It was only long afterwards when the CD, with those later recordings, came out in the 1990s that I became aware of his tragic fate.

I remember Jackson fondly. He was a sweet, pleasant man, full of emotion and compassion. He wrote songs and music that were so touching and beautiful that they still haunt me.

I think he suffered. He was too kind and vulnerable. Fears robbed him of his potential. The terrible memories of that High School fire in which he was burnt and his girlfriend and fourteen others died, haunted him. It created a mental anguish that he never recovered from. Nobody deserved to suffer the way he did. He was a genius who impacted on the music and songwriting of so many others – including Roy, Sandy, Bert, John and the Fairports. He should have been lauded to the rafters. Instead he is largely forgotten.

I’ll never forget that night in Ilford. That might have been his last gig.

Rock Routes – British Folk Rock

Posted on by Opher

My next instalment of my book telling the story of Rock Music concerns the amalgamation of folk and rock that took place in the sixties.

I hope this whets your appetite to give it a whirl!

Rock Routes: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781514873090: Books

British Folk Rock

The underground Folk Rock scene came out of the acoustic scene. It was inevitable that this should be the case because of the close connection between the Folk and Rock acts in the underground clubs, college circuits and festivals. It was not at all unusual to find an acoustic act like Roy Harper on the same bill as Free or Pink Floyd.

With Dylan and Donovan going electric and the advent of US Folk Rock acts like the Byrds there was a precedent set. Indeed nearly all the acoustic singers developed an electric format on heir later work. Some, like Al Stewart, found this to be their greatest period of creativity and success.

The result of this was the establishment of a number of Folk Rock bands spanning a large number of different styles. These included bands such as Pentangle, the Incredible String Band, the Strawbs, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Fotheringay, Fairport convention, the Humblebums and Lindisfarne.

Some of these developed out of aggregations of established solo singers while others were new to the field and attracted in musicians from other genres like Jazz, Blues and Rock.

Pentangle grew out of an informal gathering of musicians at the Three Horseshoes pub in Charing Cross road. John Renbourn and Bert Jansch had already been playing together producing their ‘Baroque Folk’ style. They added in the lilting voice of Jacqui McShee, the Jazzy double bass of Danny Thompson and the drumming of Terry Cox. It was a type of Folk Jazz fusion.

The Incredible String Band started as a trio with Clive Palmer but soon became a duo with Robin Williamson and Mike Heron. They later incorporated their partners Licorice McKechnie and Rosie Simpson. The trio had started up playing at Clive’s ‘Incredible Folk club’ in Glasgow. They were the house band – hence the name. Joe Boyd took them on and recorded them. They were renowned for their ability to play a multitude of instruments – the stage was littered with them. They produced a great happy sound gleefully blending Buddhist and Christian themes with scientology to create a mystical music full of great glee reflecting the spiritual awareness of the times. The music bounced and bubbled along delightfully. Lyrically they were interesting, enlightening and complex. Under Joe Boyd’s direction they produced a highly distinctive style that was psychedelic folk on albums like ‘The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter’ and ‘Wee Tam and the Big Huge’. They were always uplifting and inspiring and were highly influential on bands like Led Zeppelin.

Tyrannosaurus Rex were a folk duo featuring Marc Bolan and Steve Peregrine Took creating a sound based on bongos and acoustic guitar to Marc’s songs which were based on mythology and dragons. It went down very well with stoned out Freaks. They were very quaint with Marc’s wavering vocals and with the support of the prophet and seer John Peel they established themselves as a top act with minor hits with ‘Deboraarobed’ and ‘Salamanda Palaganda’ and albums like ‘My people were fair and had the sky in their hair but now they’re content to wear stars on their brows’. Steve got into the psychedelic scene with the Deviants and Pink Fairies and wanted his songs featured on future albums. It led to a fall out with Marc – Steve left and Marc morphed the band into a glam Rock unit and went on to gain huge success on the teeny-bop scene.

The Strawbs started off as a bluegrass band called the Strawberry Hill boys. They soon began doing their own stuff and became the Strawbs including Sandy Denny on vocals. Sandy left to form Fairport Convention and the Strawbs moved on to produced a couple of albums with Dave Cousins ‘The battle’ and ‘The man who called himself Jesus’ being stand out tracks before morphing into a Rock band.

Fairport Convention is probably the most important Folk Rock unit to come out of Britain. With Ashley Hutchins, Simon Nicol, Richard Thompson, Ian Matthews, Dave Swarbrick and Sandy Denny in its incarnations it had an incredible folk super-star status. The band was named after Simon Nicol’s house ‘Fairport’ where they had first convened. With their dual male and female vocalists they were greatly influenced by the West Coast sound, particularly Jefferson Airplane and yet remained quintessentially British.

Lindisfarne was a Newcastle Folk Rock band who hit big in 1970 with Alan Hull being hailed as a major songwriter.

Fotheringay were formed by Sandy Denny when she left Fairport Convention. They only released one album.

The Humblebums consisted of Billy Connolly with Gerry Rafferty as a mad Folk duo.

Steeleye Span was formed by Ashley Hutchins when he left Fairport Convention. It was a more traditional based band and also more commercial.

ArtistStand out tracks
PentangleNight Flight Let no man steal your thyme Pentangling The time has come Once I had a sweetheart Sally go round the roses Lord Franklin
Incredible String BandMaybe someday October song Smoke shovelling song Way back in the 1960s Hedgehog song Painting box First girl I loved Little cloud A very cellular song The minotaur’s song Air Ducks on a pond The half remarkable question Douglas Traherne Harding Maya Cousin caterpillar Log cabin in the sky Puppies The iron stone The circle is unbroken
Tyrannosaurus RexDebora-arobed Salamanda Palaganda Hotrod mama Mustang ford She was born to be my unicorn
StrawbsThe man who called himself Jesus The battle Oh how she changed
Fairport conventionMeet on the Ledge Si vous dois partir I’ll keep it with mine Fotheringay Who knows where the time goes Percy’s song Cajun woman Matty Groves Tamlin
LindisfarneLady Eleanor Meet me on the corner Fog on the Tyne
FotheringeyNothing more Too much of nothing
Steeleye SpanBlackleg miner Gaudette Dark eyed sailor The blacksmith
WatersonsBoston harbour The North country maid The ploughboy The Whitby lad

Another Dollop of Rock Routes – The Greenwich Village Folk Scene

Posted on by Opher

I thought I’d try and entice you to take a punt on this excellent, definitive oversight of the story of Rock Music – interesting, informative and fun to read. It’s different to other stuffy stuff. I lived it!

How about giving it a go? There’s another extract below.

Rock Routes: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781514873090: Books

Extract:

The Greenwich Village Folk Scene

By the end of the 1950s the fire had gone out of the US Rock Scene and many young musicians were heading into Folk Music which had developed a great deal of vitality. The Folkies had a traditionally based social Commitment and that tended to attract the more intellectually inclined and these included some of the remnants of Jack Kerouac’s Beat Generation. The Beatnik’s brought poetry.

In the 1950s the hero of the Folk Scene was still Woody Guthrie but he was dieing of Huntingdon’s Chorea and was laid up in the Memorial Hospital in New York. Woody was closely attended by his close followers, people like Pete Seeger, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Peter La Farge, Will Geer, Cisco Houston and his son Arlo Guthrie, who had based themselves in New York. Their presence in the area gave an impetus to the New York Folk Movement. The Folk Scene was focussed around the same clubs in Greenwich Village which had been the centre of the Beat Generation’ poetry readings. It became the most important in the States. Regular Folkies on the scene included Joan Baez, Dave Van Ronk, Arlo Guthrie, Danny Kalb, Tom Paxton, Bobby Neuwirth, Caroline Hester, Richard Farina, Odetta, Peter, Paul & Mary, Phil Ochs, Len Chandler and Lord Buckley. They were joined by a number of Blues and Folkblues artists who were finding acceptance with this new white audience. These included John Lee Hooker, Son House, Jesse Fuller, Sonny Terry & Brownie Mcghee and Big Joe Williams.

The radical politics of the Folk Movement had been deemed UnAmerican in the early 1950s. In the land of the free you had to think the same as everyone else. Dissent was UnAmerican. This was the era of the McCarthy purges of Communism. You were free to do as you were told. This led to such harmless individuals as Pete Seeger and the Weavers being banned and blacklisted. Their Union support was considered a communist conspiracy. They were unable to perform or appear on radio and TV. This had, of course, led to even more radicalism and the Coffee Bars and Folk Clubs became a hive of political and social exchange. Inevitably the Folk Movement became aligned with the anti-war and civil rights movements. Even so the scene was still very conservative. Performers spent their time singing traditional Folk or rehashing Woody Guthrie songs from the 1940s and 1950s.

By the 1960s the whole scene had split into two distinct camps. The more liberal performers were trying to create an adventurous contemporary style and the traditionalists were trying to keep it firmly fixed in the past. The Greenwich area of New York had become a thriving mass of small clubs and coffee bars including – Gerdes Folk City on 4th Street, The Café Wha?, the Gaslight and the Bitter End. It was an unlikely place for the re-stimulation of Rock music but that’s what it turned out to be.

In the early 1960s the Folkies began to break into the Popular charts and become commercial propositions with Joan Baez and Peter Paul and Mary setting the pace. At this time they were largely still recording the traditional Folk Songs as there were few writers around producing new quality material. This was to change with a vengeance when Bob Dylan arrived and began writing his own songs. He began writing songs about social injustice, equality, anti-war that became known as Protest songs. They astounded everyone and pushed Dylan to the forefront of attention and popularity. When these songs received chart success and brought Folk Music to the notice of a wider audience they generated such an interest that the talent scouts were suddenly scouring the coffee clubs and signing everyone up.

They found a number of talented individuals. Apart from the established old crew headed up by Joan Baez and the Woody Guthrie acolytes of Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Tom Paxton there were a host of others. These included Phil Ochs, Peter La Farge, Arlo Guthrie, Spider Koerner, Mark Spoeltra, Danny Kalb, David Blue, Dave Van Ronk, Buffy St Maria, Odetta, Caroline Hester and Richard and Mimi Farina. Richard Farina was tragically killed in a motorbike accident on the day he was celebrating the publishing of his first book. Of the others Phil Ochs was the stand out. His political stance was most extreme and he pushed Dylan closest in the realm of protest song. He wrote a large number of brilliant songs but failed to break through into mass recognition in the way Dylan had.

The British invasion had already taken place and there was a big move by lots of young musicians back into Rock Music. All over America garage bands were springing up copying the British R&B style. Meanwhile Dylan was setting new standards in song writing by producing lyrics that were poetic and meaningful in a way that had not happened before. His popularity meant that the Rock scene was exposed to his songs and Dylan’s song writing began to influence song writing in Rock music. This suddenly took off when the Animals recorded ‘House of the Rising Sun’ (not a Dylan song but a traditional Folk song but one that had been covered by Dylan) and Manfred Mann and the Byrds started covering Dylan’s songs and giving them a Rock format. It was the birth of Folk-Rock. This disgusted the more conservative Folkies but it galvanised Dylan himself. He reached back to his early Rock roots and went electric creating a level of fury in many of his contemporary singer/songwriters and alienating a good proportion of his audience. Dylan didn’t seem to care. He had developed into a snarling James Dean who spat words like bullets at his critics. ‘Play fucking loud!’ he snarled. He had created a new level of consciousness in his writing and now his creative energy was being poured into Rock. He left behind, to the dismay of many of his supporters, the equality, civil rights and politics and created a whole new stream of consciousness poetry and ‘Mercury sound’ Rock that fostered some of his best enigmatic masterpieces.

Dylan was a fulcrum point around which the Rock Scene was to turn. The social and political awareness that he had almost single-handedly brought into being (and now just as quickly abandoned) was to create a whole new phase in Youth Culture. It spawned the West Coast and British Underground counter-culture of the late 1960s.

There are many questions that abound. Did Dylan create the times or did the times create Dylan? Did Dylan merely use, magnify and reflect what was around him or did he give it the importance that it had never previously had? In other words was Dylan an opportunist, just a ‘Song and dance man’ as he claimed or a real passionate social engineer. He remains an enigma.

In any case the 1960s were shaped by Dylan and his genius, whether contrived or innate, was there at the right time in the right place precisely when it was needed. It matters not if he was a cynical bastard who exploited the opportunity or a deeply motivated idealist. We have the songs. We have the passion and idealism it generated in us. It changed Rock Music and it changed the world whether he wanted to or not.

The way he articulated the issues, the poetry and anger that was encapsulated in his songs was expressed in a way that no one had ever done before or has managed to do since.

Rock music absorbed it and it is evident in the song writing of the Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, and the work of hundreds of singer/songwriters and countless West Coast and British Underground bands. His influence transformed music and song writing.

The media called him the voice and conscience of a generation. Dylan seemed horrified. He could not bear the weight of it and deliberately sabotaged his own image and songs. By the late sixties we were wondering, when Nashville Skyline came out, whether he’d suffered brain damage in his motor-cycle accident or even if this twerp producing country ditties was the real Dylan at all and not some impostor put in there by the record company. There was no comparison between the wild-haired, dark glassed snarling trend-setter of the mid 60s and the conservative, sheepish, boring wet of the late 1960s. I guess he felt he had to undermine the gravity of his own image in order to survive the pressure. What a shame.

Rock music had been raised out of the Teen image into something more complex and meaningful. It dealt with real issues, politics and social change in an adult way. It was worth of literary examination and musical interpretation. It could be studied in universities. It had worth. Not only that but it forced the establishment to take notice because it had gravitas. It was not just trite ‘boy meets girl’ love songs to primitive rhythms, there was a social message that was causing ferment in young minds, there was genuine poetry and complex sophisticated musicianship.

Rock music had matured into a force to be reckoned with. The vitality and passion was allied to a Youth Culture that was shockingly active. ‘Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command’ Dylan had sung. Here it was in action. For the first time the political and social values of the entrenched conservative older generation came in for some heavy confrontation. Rebellion was in the air.

ArtistStand out tracks
Bob DylanTo Ramona Chimes of freedom Song to Woody Let me die in my footsteps Masters of war Blowin’ in the wind Don’t think twice it’s alright Talkin’ John Birch Society Blues The death of Emmett Till The ballad of Hollis Brown A hard rain’s gonna fall Oxford town With God on our side Only a pawn in their game When the ship comes in One too many mornings Boots of Spanish leather All I really want to do It ain’t me babe Lay down your weary tune
Phil OchsI ain’t marching anymore Too many martyrs Power & the glory Bound for glory Knock on the door Links on the chain Here’s to the State of Mississippi Days of decision Draft dodger rag That was the president The men behind the guns There but for fortune What are you fighting for? Is there anybody here? Changes Love me I’m a liberal Cops of the world When I’m gone
Buffy St MarieUniversal soldier Now that the Buffaloes gone My country tis of thee
Joan BaezAll my trials Silver dagger Plaisir d’amour It ain’t me babe I still miss someone Farewell Angelina A hard rain’s gonna fall Daddy you been on my mind There but for fortune Love is just a four letter word Diamonds and rust
Dave Van RonkDuncan & Brady Hesitation blues Dink’s song He was a friend of mine Fixin’ to die Stealin’ Rocks and gravel House of the rising sun
Peter La FargeAs long as the grass shall grow Ira Hayes
Koerner, Ray & GloverOne kind of favour Black betty
Richard & Mimi FarinaPack up your sorrows Celebration for a grey day House un-American Blues activity dream Hard lovin’ loser Sell out agitation waltz Reflections in a crystal wind
Tom RushDuncan & Brady I don’t want your millions mister More pretty girls than one
Tom PaxtonA thousand years Train for Auschwitz The last thing on my mind What did you learn in school today Ramblin’ boy Buy a gun for your son Goodman, Schwerner & Chaney
Mark SpoelstraFive & twenty questions
Ramblin’ Jack ElliottThis land is your land The cuckoo Railroad Bill
David BlueTalking socialised anti-undertaker blues
OdettaMake me a pallet on the floor Empty pocket blues
Peter Paul & MaryBlowin’ in the wind Don’t think twice it’s alright Early morning rain Where have all the flowers gone
Carolyn HesterHouse of the rising sun She moves through the fair
Eric AndersenThirsty boots

Music to make you think!

Posted on by Opher

I like music that makes you think, music that deals with issues, music that possesses poetic lyrics. As well as a great melody to feed the spirit I like a song to engage the cerebrum.

Music has many uses. It can make you feel good. It can be great to dance to. It can be visceral and energetic. It can by lyrical, wistful and play with the emotions. There’s a different music for different moods.

Phil Ochs hits a number of my needs. While it is not music to dance to it does play with the emotions, it does replenish the spirit, it does please the ear and above all, it does engage the brain. It’s music to get lost in.

A Toast To Those Who Are Gone is a great album. It is made up of demos that he laid down around the time he left Elektra in the 60s and was released in the eighties. The songs are all pared back and raw. They showcase Phil’s excellent voice, great melodies and quality song writing. I love this early style. I find it very moving. I like the sentiments. They are laid bare. Phil says what he feels – an insight into the ills of society – its racism, inequality, unfairness, exploitation and the courage of people who are prepared to stand up for what they know is right. Apart from the brilliant music it’s a lesson in morality for us all to absorb and think about. We take so much for granted. Phil was fighting a battle to make things better by highlighting the wrong and lauding the brave. I find it incredibly inspiring.

‘I’ll Be There’ is a perennial favourite. I also smile to myself. Phil was stating that where-ever there was injustice he would be there, and you know what, he still is.

All songs by Phil Ochs.

  1. “Do What I Have to Do” – 2:36
  2. “The Ballad of Billie Sol” – 2:24
  3. “Colored Town” – 3:00
  4. “A.M.A. Song” – 2:17
  5. “William Moore” – 3:07
  6. “Paul Crump” – 3:34
  7. “Going Down To Mississippi” – 3:04
  8. “I’ll Be There” – 2:10
  9. “Ballad of Oxford (Jimmy Meredith)”  – 2:51
  10. “No Christmas in Kentucky” – 3:04
  11. “A Toast to Those Who Are Gone” – 3:31
  12. “I’m Tired” – 2:20
  13. “City Boy” – 1:58
  14. “Song of My Returning” – 5:17
  15. “The Trial” – 2:44

This old codger is me in my music den clutching a few of my Phil treasures.

John Renbourn – Another Monday

Posted on by Opher

When I was sixteen, back in 1965, it was as if I had multiple personalities. Life was music – but what music depended on who you were hanging out with.

Back then it was about hunting out the best sounds and sharing them. When I wasn’t hanging out with mates or hunting out new stuff in the local record shops I was in my room endlessly playing stuff. Everything revolved around music (and girls).

This was the mid-sixties, we were regaled with the Beatles, Stones and a plethora of new exciting rock bands – Yardbirds, Prettythings, Animals, Who, Them, Downliners Sect, Smallfaces, Measles, Spencer Davis, Blues Incorporated. It was an endless stream of our music.

But when I was with Daphne it was Joan Baez.

When with Viv it was Donovan, Woody Guthrie and Big Bill Broonzy.

When with Mutt it was Dylan.

With Hat it was Little Richard and Eddie Cochran.

Dick it was Chicago Blues – Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins.

That was fine with me. I was up for all of it and was soaking it up!

It was Neil Ferby who introduced me to Bert Jansch and John Renbourn. He stole my girlfriend but I forgive him. He introduced me to a whole new scene – the acoustic contemporary folk scene – Davy Graham, John Martyn and then Roy Harper. Thanks Neil.

For some reason Neil sold me his Bert Jansch and John Renbourn albums. The fuse was lit.

JOHN RENBOURN – “John Renbourn” / “Another Monday” (Full Album) Guimbarda DD-22037/38 – YouTube

Extract – 537 Essential Rock Albums – Pt. 1 The first 270 

Posted on by Opher

537 Essential Rock Albums – Pt. 1 The first 270 eBook : Goodwin, Opher: Amazon.co.uk: Books

This is not your average run through an opinionated list of somebody’s favourite albums. This is much more than that. By the time you get to the end of the book you will be in no doubt as to the type of person who has written this and what their views are. This is Opher at his most extreme and outspoken.

He’s been there at the front through thousands of shows, purchased tens of thousands of albums and listened to more music than seems possible to fit into a single life. He’s run courses on Rock Music, written books and been there in the studio with many of the greats. But more important than that is that he has lived the life. He was there living it.

You’ll find a lot of albums and artists in here that you will never have heard of and they are all brilliant. You’ll find out a lot of information about them that you did not know; but more than that you will hear someone who was there telling you why they were so important to him and giving his view on the issues around and in that music. There is a depth, a political and social perspective and a personal involvement.

The passion suffuses this like TNT through dynamite.

Whether you agree with the choices or not you’ll love the journey.

261. Jeff Beck – Truth

Jeff Beck was one of the world’s great innovative guitarists. He came from my neck of the woods in the Deep South of the Thames Delta and played in one of my local groups – The Tridents – before going on to replace Clapton in the Yardbirds. His arrival sparked the most experimental and dynamic style of the band as they moved from R&B and Pop into psychedelia. Beck’s guitar-work was highly original and innovative and drove the band into a new level. They became widely accepted on the emerging Underground scene as a serious band.

Then it all started falling apart just when it should have been at its best. The Yardbirds had taken on Jimmy Page and had the most incredible double lead guitar attack ever. However it was not to be. Jeff started becoming inconsistent and the band fell apart. Jimmy took the remnants off with him to form Led Zeppelin. Keith went off to Renaissance and Jeff went off to go solo and then form the Jeff Beck Group. That band consisted of John Stewart on vocals, Ronnie Wood on bass and Micky Waller on drums. It was an incredible line-up.

I saw them play a couple of times and Jeff was always stunning on guitar though I never hugely liked John’s vocals.

This album ‘Truth’ is one of the great albums of British Progressive Rock. It features a number of great progressive bluesy and psychedelic numbers alongside some delicate workings of traditional songs like ‘Greensleeve’ and psyched out ‘Ole’ Man River’ which I always thought were a little incongruous though they seemed to work and gave the album another dimension.

The album starts with a version of the Yardbirds ‘Shapes of things’ in a very different psychedelic arrangement. Then there was a version of Tim Roses’ ‘Morning Dew’ and ‘Beck’s Bolero’ along with some blues favourites ‘Rock my plimsoul’ (which was a psyched out version of Rock me baby), ‘I ain’t superstitious’ and ‘You shook me’. They were all given the Beck treatment.

It was widely recognised as one of the major albums of the Progressive scene.

262. Dale Hawkins – Oh Suzie Q

In 1957 Dale Hawkins recorded ‘Suzie Q’. It was not quite like anything else. It took the Rockabilly of Elvis and married to the swamp-blues of Louisiana. The result was a bluesy guitar solo, muddy beat with cowbells and a swampy style of Rock.

He followed it up with good Rockabilly tracks like ‘Juanita’ and ‘Tornado’ which both had some of the elements but did not catch that magic of the ‘Suzie Q’ brand of Swamp Rock.

‘Oh Suzie Q’ gathers those tracks together with a rocked up version of Little Walters ‘My Baby’ and  some other strong songs ‘Four letter word (Rock)’ and ‘Wild, Wild World’.

If only Dale could have developed that initial Swamp Rock into something more he would have been as big as Elvis. Unfortunately his other material was good but not quite as good.

263. Big Mama Thornton – The original hound dog

Big Mama Thornton was a big lady with a really big voice. She was outrageous for her time often dressing as a man in her stage act. Like a number of R&B artists she came into secular music from a background of Gospel.

A lot of her early fifties output was good hard hitting R&B like ‘I smell a rat’ (covered by White Stripes) ‘They call me Big Mama’ and ‘You don’t move me no more. But there were two tracks that she is best remembered for. The first of these was ‘Hound Dog’. Big Mama was the first to record this Lieber & Stoller classic as early as 1952. She belted the song out to a great guitar backing and great R&B beat complete with yelps and whoops. It prompted a response song (quite common during those days) from Rufus Thomas on Sun Records and then was later rocked up by Elvis. The second was a slower bluesier song called ‘Ball and chain’. Big Mama Thornton did a really soulful version of this but it gained much more prominence when Janis Joplin turned it into an anguished gutsy song that often stole the show with the intensity she put into it.

Big Mama remains a seminal force. The original Hound Dog collection together most of her early tracks.

264. Nuggets – Original Artyfacts from the first Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968

When the British invasion took place in 1964 the Americans were shocked. They had no response. It was as if they had been invaded by aliens and did not understand the new language. However, it did not take them long to start to respond. All over the continent kids started growing their hair and forming bands. The country exploded with a plethora of new bands. Many of them were clones of British bands but many more were original and different. As the 1960s progressed these bands developed with it so that when the style turned to psychedelia they did their own versions.

There were hundreds of these bands. Every town and city had flourishing little flocks of them all playing to their mates in the local clubs and doing their best to pull the girls. Most of them died away without leaving any trace. Some recorded the odd single which might have sold locally and a few managed to secure major label contracts.

Because this music was rehearsed in their parents garages and was performed by young kids it began to be called Garage Punk.

It would probably have languished unheard collecting dust on shelves in those same garages and occasionally being dusted off for a sentimental nostalgic evening between old friends if it wasn’t for two men. Jack Holzman (founder of Elektra records) and Lenny Kaye (later the lead guitarist for the Patti Smith Group) had the bright idea of tracking down a number of these lesser known tracks and putting them out on a double album. At the time they thought it would be an interesting project and had no idea that in the process they would create a number of distinct genres, spark a wave of interest, and have far reaching effects further down the line. They called it Nuggets because they were collecting all those fairly obscure nuggets of music from that rich vein of the 1960s.

In actual fact it was rather a strange eclectic collection of fairly disparate recordings, some of which were quite big hits, some of which were obscure, and involving a wide range of styles. They were not really all Garage Bands or Garage Punk as Lenny described them. What they did do was spark an enormous amount of interest that started that snowball rolling down the mountainside picking up the debris from the sixties as it gained momentum until it exploded on the scene with the force of a nuclear avalanche.

The album Nuggets spawned other albums and album sets – Boulders, Pebbles, Chocolate Soup for Diabetics, High in the Mid 60s, Fading Yellow, and on and on and on. I was running a History f Rock Music course back in the 1980s as an Adult Education Course and one of my students was so smitten with Nuggets that he specialised in Garage Punk and started collecting Vinyl albums. He was a young man with disposable cash and by the end of the two year course he had amassed two thousand five hundred albums of Garage Punk Bands, compilations and related material!

On the Pop side there were the Castaways, Knickerbockers and Barbarians. On the Psychedelic side there were the Electric Prunes, Seeds, Count Five, Chocolate Watch Band and Cryan’ Shames. On the Garage Punk side you had the Leaves, Premiers and Standells. On the psyched out Bluesy side you had the Amboy Dukes, Shadows of knight and Blues Magoos. On the really weird psychedelic Punk you had the Magic Mushrooms  and Mouse & the Traps. Etc.

It was an inspired choice.

265. Pebbles Vol. 3 – The Acid gallery

Following the success of Nuggets there were three more series of Nuggets, followed by Boulders and then Pebbles. All over the planet people were scouring through the dusty tapes of tiny record labels to turn up the most obscure tracks by the most obscure bands.

There was a treasure trove of unheard youthful genius waiting to be exposed to the light of day (or the sound of ear). More importantly, as far as the compilers were concerned, there was money to be made.

The most interesting thing to come out of this as we found ourselves buried under collections of multiple volumes like Collecting Peppermint Clouds, Electric Lemonade, Nederland Nuggets, Gravel, Coloured Lights and Sounds, Back from the Grave, Aliens Psychos and Wild Things, Acid Visions, Acid Queens, A trip to Toytown, A trip through the sugar cube, A Deadly Dose of Wylde Psych, Circus Days, Flower Power, Garage Mechanics, Girls in the Garage, Mindrocker, Oceanic Odyssey, Psychedelic States, Syde Trips, Tripzone, Turds on a Bum Ride, Ugly Things, and We can Fly, was that there was so much of it. Not only that but it was global. Seemingly all over the world in the most unlikely places, such as Peru, Singapore and Saudi Arabia, young kids had been turned on by the Beatles and Stones, donned flares and beads, grown their hair and formed Beat groups, psychedelic outfits and aped what was going on in the States and Britain. It was universal. All the kids in Russia were dying to get Western Rock Music. Turkey was aflame with psychedelia.

Forget your cold war and global politics this was the unifying force of music, fashion and rebellion. Everyone wanted to be in a band from Australia to Iceland, Brazil to New Zealand. It brought the Berlin wall down, smashed the Iron Curtain, bulldozed the Bamboo Curtain, and breached the religious divides.

All we need to solve all the world’s problems is to create another Beatles and spark off a new social rebellion on the lines of the sixties.

Anyway, enough of those flights of whimsy and back to reality, or at least the unreality of Pebbles Vol. 3 – The Acid Gallery.

If you are looking for weird and wonderful then look no further. This is what happens when groups of young kids get their hands on ridiculously strong hallucinogenic substances which they indulge to extreme, learn the rudiments of an instrument, become exposed to a lot of new sounds created by their slightly older and more competent compatriots and find themselves in a recording studio with the means to indulge and experiment. Their efforts are collected here on Pebbles 3.

There are hilarious parodies such as the one of Jefferson Airplane by Jefferson Handkerchief – ‘I’m allergic to flowers’; horror stories based on a psychedelic Kafka story with ‘The Spider and the Fly’ and just psyched out weirdness like ‘Let’s take a trip’, ‘The reality of (air) fried Borsk’ and the parody of Dylan in the wonderful ‘Like a dribbling Fram’.

If you’re looking for something outlandish and different this might well be it.

266. Sam & Dave – Soul man

Both Sam and Dave started off singing Gospel in their churches before joining Gospel Bands. They met up in a Gospel band and then, after discovering that their disparate voices could gel, headed off into secular R&B. Sam had the smooth voice and Dave the more aggressive and raw. Together it worked well when doing both call-and-response or harmonising.

They soon got themselves a reputation for a dynamic act. They had their dance moves and put everything in so that they came off-stage drenched in sweat. It got them numerous nick-names like ‘The sultans of sweat’ and ‘The dynamic duo’.

It was moving to Stax and working with the MGs with people like Steve Cropper that got them their break-through as major players on the Soul scene. They had numerous hits with songs like ‘Soul Man’, ‘Hold on I’m Coming’, ‘When something is wrong with my baby’, ‘Brown sugar, Soul Sister’ and ‘You don’t know what you mean to me’.

Seemingly there was lots of tension between the two of them which led to splits, periods of time when they did not talk and even open fisticuffs.

It seemed to me that the whole Blues Brothers act was based on Sam & Dave.

267. Animals – Animals

The Animals came crashing out of Newcastle on the back of the Beat R&B boom of 1964 led by the Rolling Stones et al. They quickly established themselves as one of the rawest most authentic R&B bands in the country and stormed into the charts. Eric Burdon’s gravelly Geordie voice seemed not only well suited to the Blues but also well beyond his tender years. Amply backed by the likes of Alan Price on organ, Hilton Valentine on guitar, John Steel on drums and Chas Chandler on bass they created a unique Blues sound which can be heard on this first album. They even backed Sonny Boy Williamson on a tour of England. That album was similar to the one he did with the Yardbirds.

They specialised in cover of Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker and Chuck Berry but varied that with some Ray Charles and even Fats Domino.

This more eclectic approach led them into the rather extraordinary field of Bob Dylan. Impressed by the early Dylan albums they were taken to do a cover of a Folk song and ended up doing a traditional one by the name of ‘House of the Rising Sun’. It was so successful with the amplified guitar and Eric’s great vocal delivery that it became enormous.

Sadly, for me, that signalled the end. Instead of continuing with great R&B stuff such as the brilliant ‘Story of Bo Diddley’ which told the story of how Bo Diddley had come into their club in Newcastle with the gorgeous Duchess to listen to them play his material only to declare that they were rubbish, in favour of a more commercial sound.

This first album is them with their rawer sound and I like that best.

268. Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup – That’s Alright Mama

Arthur was a street busker and blues singer from the late forties and early fifties and was supposedly quite a large man. He did not make much of a living out of it and at one time was supposedly living in a packing crate under the platform at the Chicago railway station.

He played acoustic guitar and sometimes electrified this to record with a little combo.

His big claim to fame is that he recorded a handful of songs that were destined to become massive.

Elvis Presley came from a poor share-cropping family in Tupelo Mississippi. He was brought up in a poor area with a mixed black and white community. His musical style did not come out of nowhere. He stole it from the local blues singers that he used to love listening to.

When he recorded for Sam Philips he was doing covers of old Blues and Country songs that he’d absorbed. His genius was to give them that extra zip that changed them from Blues and Country into Rockabilly.

One of the guys that he covered was Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup. Elvis’s first release was ‘That’s alright Mama’ and he also recorded ‘My baby left me’ and ‘So glad you’re mine’.

Arthur was much more than just those three numbers and other interesting tracks include ‘Mean old Frisco’, ‘Rock me mama’ and ‘Katie Mae’.

269. Big Three – Cavern Stomp

At the time when the Beatles were emerging from Liverpool on to the world stage arguably the best band in the city was the powerhouse trio called The Big Three. They consisted of Johnny Hutchinson, Johnny Gustafson and Brian Griffiths. They were reputedly the loudest and most aggressive and something of their dynamic stage act can be heard on the fabulous four track EP ‘At the Cavern’. Supposedly the whole show at the Cavern was recorded but the tape was subsequently wiped! What an act of criminality!

Unfortunately they got a big brushed to one side and short-changed as the attention swept to the Beatles and they were never fed with good enough material or received a sympathetic recording production and so never really captured their live form on record.

There were a couple of good singles including a great version of Sam Cooke’s ‘Bring it on home to me’ and their signature tune ‘Cavern Stomp’ but never made that break-through.

That wonderful EP makes it all worthwhile though and that plus all the rest is on this album.

My Journey To Roy Harper

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As an eighteen-year-old, Les Cousins was the place where I first heard Roy sing (and talk) but the journey to get there started a long time before that.

I had to first discover acoustic folk and blues and then the fabulous contemporary folk singer-songwriters. But I’m jumping ahead. I’ll start at the very beginning.

Way back in 1960 when I was around eleven-years-old there was an older girl down my street who was a bit of a beatnik. I remember black polo necks and medallions. She was called Daphne and she introduced me to Joan Baez by endlessly playing Joan’s first album of traditional folk songs. That was a departure from the Buddy Holly and Everly Brothers I had been listening to (along with Adam Faith and the Shadows). I enjoyed the Joan Baez but wasn’t completely bowled over.

A year or so later my friend Charlie Mutton introduced me to Bob Dylan’s first album. I quite enjoyed the rawness. It was very different. But I was not convinced enough to buy the album (money was tight). That happened about the same time that Dick Brunning turned me on to Blues and I started listening to the likes of Robert Johnson’s great acoustic stuff.

By late 1964 Donovan started appearing on Ready Steady Go and released the single Catch The Wind in early 1965. By this time I’d been getting into Dylan (his next few acoustic albums were inspirational) and Donovan seemed related. I had a girlfriend – Viv Oldfield – who was really into Donovan and she had an elder brother who was mad on Woody Guthrie and Big Bill Broonzy. So my musical adventures were going all over the place with the discovery of new singers – Sonny Terry Brownie McGhee, Sleepy John Estes, Snooks Eaglin and Big Joe Williams. Phil Ochs rocked my head with his hard-hitting anti-war and civil rights songs – only second to Dylan. Paul Simon’s first album (The Paul Simon Songbook) had quite an effect. I loved that. Then there was a plethora of others from the Greenwich Village folk scene – Buffy St Marie, Richard and Mimi Farina, Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and the Native American Peter LaFarge. I enjoyed hunting out people my mates hadn’t heard of.

At the time records of Blues and Folk artists were really hard to come by. I used to hunt through the second-hand record bins for obscure Folkways records or a cover that took my fancy.

Bear in mind that at this time I was also really into the beat bands – Beatles, Stones, Yardbirds, Pretty Things, Who, Downliners Sect, Small Faces and Measles, as well as the old Rockers – Chuck Berry, Bo Diddly, Little Richard, Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly – plus Electric Blues – Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson and Elmore James – but that’s a different story. I’m focussing on the acoustic. Safe to say that music dominated my mind. I never stopped playing it.

Anyway, I became besotted with Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan because of the lyrics. I’m a lyric guy.  Then a mate called Robert Ede lent me this fabulous album by Jackson C Frank which blew my mind. I couldn’t stop playing it. Another mate called Neil Furby, sold me the Bert Jansch and John Renbourn debut albums and they opened my mind. Neil also played me Anji by Davey Graham and that opened up new horizons. The British contemporary folk scene was exploding and I was in at the beginning.

By 1967 I was really immersed in the contemporary folk scene and was listening to a wide range of American and British singer songwriters. I was also into psychedelia, Blues, R&B and West Coast. No wonder my studies weren’t going well. I had trouble fitting it all in. The Incredible String Band reared their head – a friend called Gary Turp was mad on them and dragged me off to a gig or two.

It was spending my evenings at the Toby Jug in Tolworth, Eel Pie Island in Twickenham and Middle Earth, The Marqui and UFO clubs in London as well as a number of smaller clubs and college venues. Not much time for sleep.

Then a long lost friend called Jeff (with the white plastic mac) told me about this fiery singer who was ranting about the same stuff as me. He told me I had to go and hear him.

By this time my interests in the folk scene had taken me to the Barge, Bunji’s and Les Cousins. I’d turn up on my motorbike, pay a few shillings and get a fabulous evening/night of entertainment from Bert, John, Martyn, Al and hosts of others. Then, one night, between Bert and John, that fiery force of nature took the stage for a short set of three numbers and some gab, and altered the universe!

That was the start.

In Search Of Captain Beefheart – 1 – On The Starting Line

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On the starting line

Once I got out of Clive’s bedroom I began my quest in earnest. I looked everywhere I could but there were no signs of my heroes. This was probably due to two things: firstly I was an eleven year old kid living in the Delta region of the Deep South (Thames Delta that is – Walton on Thames) and there was very little in the way of record shops or live venues (Walton on Thames was not renowned for its boulevard cruisin’ in red Cadillac’s or its jiving’ Honky Tonks and Juke Joints) and secondly my heroes were still out of circulation. Woody was going down with the terrible Huntingdon’s Chorea which would stop him performing and writing anymore. Don Van Vliet was probably living out on his trailer in the desert with his mum Sue and hanging out at school with Frank Zappa. Roy was causing mayhem Blackpool way with Beat poetry, feigned madness, army desertion and pregnant girlfriends. Bob was doing his Little Richard impersonations and starting out on the road to putting together his auto-constructed mythology and was about to start singing to Woody in the sanatorium. Son House hadn’t been rediscovered and had yet to relearn the guitar, get back in the studio and be trundled out to white audiences.

I filled my time in by substituting in other heroes.

Hard on the heels of Buddy and Adam I soon discovered Elvis, Eddie, Cliff and then the revelation of Little Richard. He was explosive! ‘Here’s Little Richard’ was an immense album. I got obsessed with it. That voice belting out that basic thumping Gospel influenced yet wholly secular primitive Rock ‘n’ Roll along with his wild pounding piano. He was the true King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. There was no one to touch him. Elvis, who copied a lot of his songs, was a pale imitation in more ways than one. I remember sitting on the sofa with my 52 year old big fat jolly Nanny (Grandma), who was shortly destined to have a stroke and die, and watching a Little Richard, come-back, hour long TV show in the early 60s. He put everything into it. The sweat was beaded on his face and dripping off him. He stood and hammered the keys, played it with his foot, backside and elbow and pulled off every trick in the book while my Nanny roared him on and bounced around causing the sofa to suffer earthquakes. My Nan was a rocker!

My school had a fete and I took my Dansette in with my record collection and performed as a Juke Box. I charged six pence a play and only played Little Richard all afternoon. I didn’t get to make much but I had a great time!

I finally got to meet my hero not so long ago when he played in Bradford. I took my younger son Henry with me as an essential part of his education (I also took him to see Chuck Berry, Rambling Jack Elliott, Love, The Magic Band, Lazy Lester & Jerry Lee Lewis and got him to see Bo Diddley, the Fall, the Buzzcocks and John Cooper Clarke). The Little Richard Show was a strange affair. There seemed to be three elements to it. There was the Rock ‘n’ Roll – but lacking in the energy and athleticism – he was in his mid seventies – but there was also this cloying evangelical Christian crap and a very camp gayness all of which did not quite gel with raw Rock ‘n’ Roll. It left me feeling dissatisfied. I would have loved to have seen him in 1957 when he was revolutionary. Even more disturbing was going back after the show to see him. He was doing a poster signing. There was a long queue and two big black heavies on the door who were distinctly underworld. They collected your £30 quid off you with a very heavy warning: you went in shook hands, had your poster signed – if you tried to get anything else signed, like my original ‘Here’s Little Richard’ album from my childhood it would be taken off me and smashed. I got the feeling that there would likely be a few more things broken in the bargain.

I walked up to get my poster signed by the great Mr Penniman with the guy from the support act. He’d done a great version of ‘Casting my spell’ and I said that it sounded just like the Measles version that I used to love. He was nice and friendly and turned out to be the lead singer with the Measles.

The next few years were quite fallow for me and lacking in real heroes. The charts, which we all drooled over, were full of sanitised Pop stuff – Fabian, Bobby Darin, Bobby Vee and Bobby Rydell. Some of it was OK and I quite liked Del Shannon, Roy Orbison and Dion & the Belmonts but I drew the line at Bobby Vee and Fabian and had headed off back into the 1950s for my fix. I devoured all the Buddy Holly, Little Richard and Eddie Cochran I could get my hands on and added some Shadows, Gene Vincent, Fats Domino, Huey ‘Piano’ Smith, and early Elvis before discovering the bombshells of Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley.

I didn’t know what I was searching for. I thought I’d found it in good old Rock ‘n’ Roll. It hit you right in the belly and got you moving. I thought everyone should record fast rockers. Rock ‘n’ Roll was great but it wasn’t the whole caboodle. I would grow up a little.

I had a lot to learn.

The lean years ended in 1963.

In Search of Captain Beefheart: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781502820457: Books

Today’s Music To keep me SssSaaaAnnnNeeE in Isolation – Bert Jansch – Jack Orion

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I thought I’d give this one a listen as it is not one I usually play much!! But I do love Bert!!

Today’s Music to keep me SSSSSAAAaNnNnEee In Lockdown – Joan Baez

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I remember Joan as an activist and person who stood up for fairness. She didn’t write too many songs of her own but she could certainly do great versions of Dylan.

Joan Baez – Greatest Hits (THE BEST OF POP – FULL ALBUM) – YouTube