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Forgotten Classics
Most interesting stuff that I'd forgotten I owned.
1) Richard Thompson - Rumour and Sigh.
Quirky and humorous with stylish guitar-playing. "I feel so good I'm gonna break somebody's heart tonight"
2) Bobby McFerrin - Simple Pleasures.
Marvellous solo a capella vocalism. "Don't worry, be happy", he says. I couldn't agree more.
3) Spinal Tap - Break Like the Wind.
Far better than the bands they were parodying. The only shame is that the album doesn't include Nigel Tufnel's classical piano ballad "Lick my Love Pump"
4) Dirty Dozen Brass Band - Voodoo
The clue is in the name. They're a brass band, there are about twelve of them, and they play dirty old jazz and blues classics.
5) Terence Trent Darby - Neither Fish Nor Flesh.
Intriguing rather than particularly good, this was a surprisingly bleak, uncommercial follow-up to his hugely successful debut album. "Billy my friend, don't fall in love with me, I'm not that kind of guy"
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White-man blues
The popular myth is that white men can't play the blues. This is clearly untrue.
1) Stevie Ray Vaughan
Shortly after his fatal helicopter crash in 1990, I seem to remember a stand-up comedian putting it quite nicely : "Proof that God doesn't exist. Stevie Ray Vaughan is dead, yet Jon Bon Jovi lives"
2) Bobby Radcliff
I know very little about this guy except that he can produce some marvellously frenetic guitar pyrotechnics.
3) John Campbell
One-eyed growly-voiced Michael Bolton lookalike. But fortunately not soundalike.
4) Johnny Winter
His albinism makes him the whitest of all white blues men. Unless you count the head-to-toe tattoos.
5) The Allman Brothers Band
Rollicking Southern blues-rock that had me dancing around like a cretin. Includes "Jessica" (the Top Gear music). Hope I'm not turning into Clarkson.
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Stand-out tracks on otherwise mediocre abums
1) Good Morning Britain - Aztec Camera.
Cracking upbeat collaboration between Roddy Frame and ex-Clash frontman Mick Jones.
2) Norwegian Wood - Cornershop.
Hindi version of the Beatles song. ("Hai na ye achi, Norwegian Lakri")
3) Temptation - Wet Wet Wet.
Don't laugh. I'm not too proud to admit that I like this song. Oh, music can be an irrational beast.
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Drivel
1) Level 42 - Staring at the Sun
Mark King's high-chested pop-slap-bass can't disguise the fact that this is just dreary, monotonous rubbish.
2) The Animals
Nothing wrong the Animals, they wrote some classics in the late 60s. But I think this is a live album by a re-formed version of the group, and they sound like an eighties pub rock band doing bad covers of old Animals songs.
3) Dianne Reeves - Never Too Far
This starts promisingly with a lively jazzy tune, but quickly descends into soggy Whitney Houston-esque mush. The only positive is that it still had a price label on it, and it only cost me ten bob.
4) Billy Joel - Storm Front
Tripe.
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