First up is a few moments of mmm, nice smooth jazz. All the way from Atlanta, Georgia, it’s keyboard wizard and producer John Carrozza, seasoned bassist Joe Reda, veteran percussionist Jon Chalden and vocal siren Jennifer Carrozza. Which means a lot of them are quite old, and should know better than to mess with ‘Jingle Bells’. But it’s, mmmm, nice.
Visit them here and listen to ‘Jingle Bells’ here.
We’ve also got a treat from arch-mentalist Enya, the quite possibly robotronic Queen of all things Lothlorien and flouncy. I’m not entirely convinced she exists, what with all the soft focus and Irish castles malarkey, but whatever computer controls her / is her, has come up with an “interesting” version of ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’. I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so scared and creeped out. Those with a strong stomach, and some kind of dwarvish defence mechanism may take their lives in their own hands here.
Please God, will someone hurry up with that figgy pudding! She won’t leave without it. Help……
Come Christmas Day, I’ll be broadcasting Christmas joy to the world on GRTR between 8 and 10pm GMT, and broadcasting Christmas Blues to the world on Boxing Day.
After the success of a couple of weeks back, I decided to delve deeper into the vinyl cupboard. Sadly, this visit brought some very mixed results.
Cerrone – Love In C Minor – inexplicably popular seventies French DJ. The words French and DJ should have been warning enough. People too scared to watch porn probably bought it for the heavy breathing.
Curved Air – Back Street Luv – I can only assume that in 1972 hairy blokes were so desperate for poontang that they would buy this awful, leaden, pub prog, on the hope that the chick singer would take them backstage, despite her actually being a bloke. Have reformed for no discernible reason. Listen.
Da Lench Mob – Freedom Got An A.K – yes, some hippity hop from Ice Cube proteges who seem to think that shooting white people is A Good Idea. I have to disagree, unless they’ve still got an A.K. Same sample as ‘Jump Around’ by House Of Pain, which is a million times better, so listen to that instead, despite my antipathy to the murdering micks. Listen.
Dani Ali / Annabel Lamb – Talk To Me – yup, the Theme from Damon & Debbie, the godawful Brookside spin off which thankfully died very quickly. Clever marketing ploy has fake Damon and Debbies singing the same tune, but that fails to polish AOR turd.
Willie Cobbs – CC Rider – Praise be for some good old fashioned harmonica blooze.
Dandy Warhols – Gett Off – pointless, dull indie on appropriately shit coloured vinyl.
Chi-Lites – You Don’t Have To Go – back to the good stuff with Eugene Record and his boys giving us some mighty seventies soul. Listen.
Mac Davis – Baby, Don’t Get Hooked On Me – country songwriters shows why other people had hits with his songs – wrote ‘In The Ghetto’ fact fans. Once sang this song on the Muppet Show with Miss Piggy. Now, that’s fame! Listen.
Chicory Tip – Good Grief Christina – good grief, they had more than one record. video free video version right below.
Deep Purple – Smoke On The Water – RAWK! And you all know that, so here is the lesser known Six Feet Under version. Listen.
Chic – I Want Your Love – the one that wasn’t as good as ‘Good Times’ or ‘Le Freak’.
Gun – Welcome To The Real World – Scotch plod rockers who managed to have proper hit single and albums before returning to vocational waitering. Listen.
Tina Charles – Fire Down Below – sadly, not the Bob Seger / Bette Midler tune. No, it’s the evil Biddu and his tune from seventies soft porner “The Stud”. Smashed. Scarily, Annabel Lamb from Damon & Debbie has been employed by Ms Charles and hat a hit all of our own.
Merle Haggard – I’m Always On A Mountain When I Fall – Hag thinks prison preferable to being on this list. Listen.
Chanson – I Can Tell – textbook example of how acorns CAN fall far from the tree, as this awful orchestrated disco number was written and produced by James Jamerson Jr, son of the legendary Funk Brother.
Jagged Edge – Hell Ain’t A Long Way – more leaden British so called rawk from so called next big things. Title makes no sense, and recording live B sides at the Woughton centre, Milton Keynes should make you realise that you are not Next Big Thing. Sleeve, somewhere in the right hand side column confirms not Next Big Thing.
Bonus Six Feet Under kover. Wooooaaaaaaaarrgggghhhh!!!!!!!!!!
Bonus Peggy Lee track from Otis Redding Post. Cool.
That Annabel Lamb hit. Don’t blame me, blame the eighties.
A couple of days ago, smooth singing, easy listening icon George ‘George’ Benson was in town, entertaining 3000 or so elderly ladies, in the modern day version of an old folks home tea dance. Naturally, I turned down various entreaties to lower the average age by a good couple of decades. These days I only attract ladies of a certain age which either makes me well past it, or John Barrowman. Chances I can’t afford to take.
However, after a few hours of gently pottering around, testing out assorted park benches for levels of comfort, I actually remembered that George ‘George’ Benson used to be a top notch jazz guitarist. Now, that was a long, long time ago, so it took some digging around in the dark recesses of the vinyl cupboard before I came across the following gem;
Yes, not only did the super smotth Gurratest Lurve Ov All man cover the Jefferson Airplane classic, back in 1971; he named an entire album after it. And he got Herbie Hancock and Billy Cobham to join in. When they were still good. Amazing. Steal the title track here. Buy it here.
Which naturally made me think of my favourite electro gothsters, Collide. Who also covered ‘White Rabbit’, albeit it in a radically different form. They’re working hard on new material, and you really ought to buy their entire back catalogue here. Or be cheap, and steal the cover here.
Of course, some times the originals are the best, so you may as well have that as well. I’m more of an early seventies Jefferson Starship man myself, but the 1965 Jefferson Airplane lineup are getting back together for a festival show in the US. Find out more at founding bass player, Bob Harveys web site. Steal the original here, or grab the budget best of, for under a fiver, here.
And because I’m such a great guy, you can have a listen to a live version by Collidehere.
