A musical epiphany

I love music, have done since I was very young. It has defined my life, influenced travel plans and consumed a significant part of my income. I have heard many people say they love music too but what they really mean is they like it. Like doesn’t confer any sort of passion hence they use ‘love’.

In 2017 we embarked on a road trip that took in New Orleans, Clarkesdale, Memphis and Nashville. It cost a fortune but was worth every penny. The whole trip was about music. We saw the Crossroads, the studio where Elvis first recorded, hung out in bars that influenced Rolling Stones lyrics, Marie Laveau’s tomb amongst many other highlights. This year we will visit LA and Austin Texas, two cities steeped in the history of music.

I have drank in Amy Winehouse’s local, Led Zeppelin’s favourite LA hangout, the bar where Janis Joplin had her last drink and the pub that John Lennon chose as the venue for the first date with Cynthia, his wife to be.

I was listening to music last weekend when I realised there are a number of songs that stop me in my tracks. Whatever I am doing, whoever I’m talking to, I need to zone out and concentrate on the song. Some of these songs probably wouldn’t make my personal top fifty, others are in the top five. I will try to explain what it is about them, probably no single reason, but every time I hear them I am transfixed.

The following list is by no means all but is a significant number. I will try to explain what it is that grabs me and won’t let go.

1952 Vincent Black Lightning – Richard Thompson

One of my loves is a great lyric, especially one that affects me emotionally. This tune is a tragic love song that makes me well up every time I hear it. I (try to) play guitar and tried to learn this acoustic masterpiece. The first struggle was the tuning CGDGBE – what’s that about?? Secondly Richard Thompson employ’s deft fingerpicking, I can’t even manage crap fingerpicking. Buoyed on by Henry Ford’s words – ‘If you think you can do it or think you can’t do it…………..you’re probably right!’ I persevered. I managed to busk the guitar parts ‘til they sounded ok to me but it was when I tried to sing it. I kept breaking down in tears when I reached the last verse!!……………..Dammit Richard…………….why don’t you cry? How can you make guitar playing seem so effortless?

Check out this youtube video if you want to understand what the hell I’m going on about

Last of the Hobo Kings – Mary Gauthier

I tried out my theory with this one. I put ‘Live at Blue Rock’ by Mary Gauthier on and had to stop when Last of the Hobo Kings came on. Now Mary Gauthier is one of the finest lyricist’s of all time and a writer of many heart wrenching songs. This is not one of them. I like to think of this as a celebration of an alternative life well lived. I first heard it at a Mary Gauthier show in Bury. She told the story of why she wrote the song before playing it and the story has stayed with me ever since.

Over to Mary Gauthier:

I was in the café atrium sipping Dutch coffee one morning when I saw a headlined obituary in the International Herald Tribune newspaper for Steam Train Maury Graham, the Grand Patriarch of the Hobo Nation. I’d never heard of him, but I read his obituary and it grabbed me, he grabbed me, and I knew I’d found the thread of the song I should write. My attention fully engaged, I started poking around on my laptop for the more of Steamtrain’s story. The first thing I found was the website for the funeral home where he was being laid to rest. I clicked on his name, landed on a message board and read all the messages posted there from people who loved him, mostly other hobos. I kept poking around, digging up hobo treasures and gathering hobo stories from all over the web.

Maury Graham was a folk hero and legendary figure in his community, thus the headlined obituary in The New York Times, and The International Herald Tribune paper. I travelled deep into the vernacular and history of hobos in America, and time flew by. I learned about the hobo jungles and the hobo gatherings, the annual King and Queen elections, and the hobo lifestyle. It was a wonderful journey into a world I’d never visited and I emerged a few days later with the song in hand. It’s one of my favourite songs I’ve ever written.

New Rose – The Damned

I had yet to reach my teenage years when this song was released. Even in my early years I was an avid reader of the music press thus I was aware of Punk Rock as it began to evolve in London in 1976. The Sex Pistols were the band all music fans were waiting for and wanted to hear. It was The Damned that were the first Punk band to release a single. New Rose was released on the iconic Stiff records (Buy 6 was its catalogue number fellow anoraks). I first heard it on the John Peel show, surreptitiously listening when I had been sent to bed. Man, I was blown away………………I was a Prog rock fan for God’s sake!! My life was changed forever. Rebellion was in the air and I wanted to be a part of it. My education started here.

I bought my copy from Earthquake records. It came in a picture sleeve, Slade didn’t. I got home and played it repeatedly for days on end. From the opening ‘Is she really going out with him?’ through Rat Scabies ferocious drum intro and Bryan James’ fast paced chords I was hooked.

A few weeks later the Pistols released Anarchy in the UK, the Clash released White Riot and the Stranglers released (get a) Grip. The Damned soon became a joke in my eyes, I quickly moved on.

Now, nearly 45 years later, I still stop and freeze when I hear New Rose. I like a few Damned tracks but my God, this song changed my life and opened doors that have kept me exploring musically ever since.

I have friends who say that Punk was ‘not music’, ‘the end of music’……………….the same people who say they love music but really mean they like it. Even worse, they only like safe tum-ti- tum pleasant tunes.

Check this track out. This is where it began in England. In America it was the MC5, the Stooges then the  Ramones. As Bob Dylan said ‘The times they are a changin’

Miss Ohio – Gillian Welch

Time to calm things down after the rousing clarion call of Punk. Time the Revelator was the first Gillian Welch song I heard and it’s fair to say I was hooked. I came late to Gillian’s music but I quickly bought everything she’d released. Soul Journey’s was supposed to be the album that made me think she’d sold out and gone too commercial. I put the album on, It started with Miss Ohio. I had to pull over, listen to the whole album, then  listen to Miss Ohio again before I could continue my drive into work. To this day Miss Ohio makes me stop whatever I’m doing and listen with 100% attention.

The line “I want to do right but not right now” echoes a famous prayer of St Augustine; “Lord, make me pure—but not yet.”. Here the line is detached from a religious context but the sentiment appears to be similar! A nice allusion to the dualities of human nature. Maybe Miss Ohio went on to be good after all … or maybe not …

Listen to Gillian sing

She’s a-running around with her rag-top down

She says, I want to do right but not right now

How does it make you feel? How does Gillian sound? It grabbed me the first time I heard it and still does now.

You were always on my mind – Willie Nelson

Continuing in a mellower mood comes one of the finest love songs of all time. Written by Johnny Christopher, Mark James, and Wayne Carson it was first  recorded by B.J. Thomas in 1970. I’ve never heard the original version so can’t comment. For me this song this is about two singers; Elvis Presley and Willie Nelson.

Elvis’ version is awesome. I can’t relate to people who claim they don’t like Elvis. Sure he didn’t write his own songs, most of his music was schmaltzy and insignificant, his films were crap but when he did get it right there was no-one better. Listen to his early music, that’s what the fuss is about. Awesome doesn’t begin to describe how good he was. I’ll never forget standing in Sun studios listening to the original acetate of That’s alright Mama………..stunning. In RCA Studio B the guide told the story that Elvis liked to record in the dark……she dimmed the light and played the first take of Are you lonesome tonight……………..spine tingling!!!!!!

So why Willie Nelson? It’s the voice, calming, mesmerising, so goddam believable. The lyrics of this song make me think of my own failings and frailties. I wish I could look the love of my life in her eyes and apologise my weaknesses. If I could, I would want to sound like Willie Nelson. What a voice, what a guy. Who would not want to be Willie Nelson?  “As adults we try to relax from the never-ending quest for reason and order by drinking a little whiskey or smoking whatever works for us, but the wisdom isn’t in the whiskey or the smoke. The wisdom is in the moments when the madness slips away and we remember the basics.”  

 Willie built his own golf course on his ranch:

“Par is whatever I say it is. I’ve got one hole that’s a par 23 and yesterday I damn near birdied the sucker.”

What a man, what a song……………………Pour yourself a self a big one or skin yourself a fat one, dim the lights and listen to Willie singing You were always on my mind.

Captain Beefheart   Big Eyed Beans from Venus

Time to let your freak flag fly.

 I first heard this song when I was at school. Back then it stopped me in my tracks, slapped me in the face……..It was different to anything I’d ever heard. The opening riff, the guitar tone, Captain Beefheart’s rasp……I was hooked. I had heard of the Captain as I was a Frank Zappa fan. I loved his singing on ‘Willie the Pimp’ from the Hot Rats album.

This song has, without doubt, some of the best guitar work you’ll ever hear on record. It’s delta blues from another dimension. I was talking to an immensely talented local guitarist a few years ago who I knew to be a Beefheart fan. I asked if he could play Big Eyed Beans from Venus and he guardedly admitted he could. It was fairly obvious that he didn’t want to show me how, what he didn’t know was that I don’t want to even try. I’d only ruin it!

Clear Spot was the first Captain Beefheart album I heard. I was amazed by the chords, the rhythm, the lyrics, the poetry and then came Big eyed beans from Venus. Forty odd years on this track still amazes me. I will probably like you if you’ve heard this track. If you love it like I do then I will definitely like you.

This was one of John Peel’s favourite songs of all time.

Mr. Zoot Horn Rollo

Hit that long lunar note

And let it float

…………Pure bliss………..

Sonny’s Lettah – Linton Kwesi Johnson

Linton Kwesi Johnson, also known as LKJ, is a Jamaican dub poet who has been based in the United Kingdom since 1963. In 2002 he became the second living poet, and the only black poet, to be published in the Penguin Modern Classics series. His performance poetry involves the recitation of his own verse in Jamaican Patois over dub-reggae, usually written in collaboration with renowned British reggae producer/artist Dennis Bovell.

Tolly, a guy I used to work with, loaned me Forces of Victory by LKJ when I told him I liked Reggae music. I don’t know what I expected but it certainly wasn’t an album of poetry. The music is a bit part player as LKJ’s poetry is mesmerising. I love Jamaican patois, it conjures visions of tropical sunshine, strong Rum cocktails and fast bowlers. Sonny’s Lettah has a serious message. It is an anti Sus poem. Sus law empowered the police to arrest any person they suspected of loitering with intent to commit an arrestable offence. …The vast majority of those arrested were Black people.  The sus law caused widespread public concern and was abolished after the 1981 Brixton riots.

This poem gripped me the first time I heard it and still does today. I can’t imagine how it felt to live under its shadow. Sadly, Sus seems to be making a comeback with ‘Stop and search’ policy implemented by many police forces today. Evidence seems to suggest that this policy has, at best, limited impact on violent crime levels.

Have a listen to Sonny’s Lettah

Route 66 – Chuck Berry

Written by Bobby Troup this ode to the Mother road has been covered by a huge number of artists. The Rolling Stones did a great version as did Doctor Feelgood but my favourite cover was recorded by Chuck Berry. Troup was a Jazz musician who wrote the song in 1946 inspired by his drive West to look for fame and fortune in Los Angeles. Nat King Cole heard the song and released the first cover version and made it a hit.

I love America and this song always symbolised the American dream to me. Though I have never driven from Chicago to LA I have travelled parts of the Mother road and loved every minute. Try and visit Seligman, Arizona the small town that was the inspiration behind the Disney film Cars. We met Angel Delgadillo who is a business owner in Seligman who has been dubbed the “guardian angel” of U.S. Route 66. He is the main founder of the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona, established in 1987 to campaign for “Historic Route 66” signage on the former US highway; similar initiatives have since been established in every U.S. Route 66 state. It was Angel who lobbied Congress to recognise Route 66 as having National historic status. He is a truly wonderful, modest, friendly man. I can’t do a road trip without Route 66 being a key fixture on my music compilation.

Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen

Another road song. For years I really didn’t like Bruce Springsteen. He epitomised all I disliked about stadium gigs full of chest beating anthems…………….except I loved this song from the first time I heard it. When I hear the crashing opening chords I want to jump up, dance, sing a long at the top of my voice, grab a guitar and play along pausing briefly to learn to play Saxophone. This song still makes me feel good every time I hear it, remember how it felt when me and Pat were younger and the whole world felt open to us. All we could see were opportunities to see the parts of the world we dreamed of.  I guess Bruce is singing about getting out of New Jersey with his girl. He did of course……..but today can look back fondly to those Asbury Park days that defined him.

This is another tune that is a must have on my road trip compilations. If I feel down I only need to play this song to lift my spirits.

Bruce Springsteen redeemed himself in my eyes with Nebraska, The Ghost of Tom Joad and the Seeger sessions. It is Born to Run though that will always define him in my eyes

Smells like Teen Spirit – Nirvana

I still vividly remember staring, open mouthed at the TV screen when I first saw the video for Smells like Teen Spirit on MTV. I love the slowly swaying janitor and the cheerleaders who go through the motions until becoming energised as the crowd wake up and begin to mosh.

Kurt Cobain said he was trying to rip off the Pixies when he wrote it. Cobain came up with the song’s title when his friend Kathleen Hanna, at the time the lead singer of the riot grrrl band Bikini Kill, wrote “Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit” on his wall. Hanna meant that Cobain smelled like the deodorant Teen Spirit, which his then-girlfriend Tobi Vail wore. Cobain said he was unaware of the deodorant until months after the single was released, and had interpreted it as a revolutionary slogan, as they had been discussing anarchism and punk rock. How goddam cool is that???

I am hooked from the moment I hear the guitar riff. I love Kurt’s voice, love the lyrics. I can’t help but think how he would have turned out if he hadn’t tragically taken his own life at the Rock’n’Roll occult age of 27. I can’t sit down and listen to this track………I need to be up playing air guitar and singing along, empathising with Kurt. Another song that heralded a revolution in popular music. RIP Kurt

Well that’s ten tunes which feels like a good number to end on. I am torn by the fact that I didn’t get to write about:

Ain’t Nuthin’ but a G thang – Dr Dre

I still believe – Frank Turner

Jeruselam – Steve Earle

Pancho and Lefty – Townes Van Zandt

I walk on gilded splinters – Dr John

I had to stop somewhere or this blog would have become a book! When your life is defined by music you build up a vast library of tunes that define stages of your life. I said at the beginning that some of these songs would not get in my top 50 or even top 100. I’m conscious (and somewhat horrified)  that I have not included anything by The Beatles, The Stones, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Alex Harvey and many other of my favourite artists. My intention was always to highlight songs that form part of my musical fermata. I bet you have some as well. I hope this blog will cause you to consider your own. I hope you will check out these ten songs. It will only take an hour of your life but hopefully some of these songs will enrich it.

This blog is dedicated to Earthquake records. You were my musical finishing school, where I got my degree in music that made a difference.