Steve Shark Dept. - A Right Fandango!

A friend of mine (Steve Shark brags) recently had his driving licence confiscated after a mix up over a medical examination. He got it back eventually but it was, to quote him, "a right fandango".

We've probably all heard the word "fandango" before - if only in Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" - but what is a "fandango"? Well, it's often used to describe a chaotic or complicated situation or process, but it was originally a dance from Spain and Portugal. This set me off on a trawl through my music collection to find any fandangos I had and I came up with quite a few...

These aren't necessarily true fandangos, in fact most certainly aren't, but I came up with quite a quirky collection which I'm going to share. The tracks are meant to also serve as jumping off points to places you might not have visited yet.

1. Renaud Garcia-Fons - Ultimo Fandango
Garcia-Fons is a French jazz double bassist with very obvious folk and world influences. This is probably the only real fandango here. It could almost belong on Chick Corea's "This Spanish Heart" album (check that mother out!) and shows off his virtuosity in an interesting acoustic setting with accordion, guitar, and violin.

2. The Shadows - Fandango
The Shadows are the UK's best known guitar instrumental band who influenced many a budding guitarist - myself included. This is almost a real fandango and features harmony guitars - probably Hank Marvin double tracked. Nowadays, I gather Hank's into Gypsy Swing, and he's a far better player than the Shadows' recordings suggest.

3. Doobie Brothers - Neal's Fandango
This is definitely not a fandango. It's a rather fine piece of country rock from "Stampede", my favourite Doobies album. There's a nice pedal steel solo from ex-Dan Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, after a very Allmans sounding harmony guitar passage. There are further multitracked guitar solos which go a bit psychedelic, just to leven the rather Eagles vibe.

4. Bob Wills - Spanish Fandango
I'm a huge Western Swing fan and it's Bob Wills I always keep coming back to - especially the Tiffany Transcriptions. Cut for radio broadcast, they catch Wills and his band at their most relaxed. Here's another not-fandango with some great ensemble playing - electric guitar, electric mandolin and steel playing horn lines. Tiny Moore unleashes an electric mandolin solo which just swings and sings.

5. Cindy Cashdollar - Spanish Fandango
Not the same tune as above. Instead, an instrumental featuring Cindy and Steve James on reso guitars. There's some lovely interplay between the two with beautiful harminics. Cindy was in Asleep at the Wheel - well worth checking out in their own right. Still not a fandango!

6. Martha Velez - Very Good Fandango
Included for curiosity value only. It features Ms Velez warbling rather badly and mars what is quite an interesting blues amd soul album called "Fiends and Angels", featuring unknowns like Eric Clapton, Paul Kossof, Jack Bruce and a couple of blokes from some band called Traffic. Definitely not a fandango of any known type!

7 Pip Pyle's  Equipe Out - Foetal Fandango
The late Pip Pyle is one of my favourite drummers. He was in Chicken Shack, Delivery, Hatfield and the North, National Health, Khan and Gong and was also a very good composer, as shown here. The time signature is very odd and I've tried to work it out but failed - perhaps someone here could oblige, please? This has two members of of Soft Machine included, with a great sax solo from Elton Dean. Very quirky, but then listen to what Pip did next...

8 Pip Pyle - Foetal Fanfare Fandango
...yes, the same tune, but slower, so that it almost sounds like something you might hear at a rather avant-garde New Orleans funeral parade. I don't know why he decided to cut the tune again, but I'm glad he did. Mutant Dixieland jazz! The album features many Canterbury Scene musicians and manages to avoid any of the jazz rock cliches which often plague such line ups.

9 Racing Cars - Moonshine Fandango
One hit wonders who charted with "They Shoot Horses Don't They?". This is a pleasant enough but rather generic rocker with just a hint of Little Feat and almost Man like vocals...both bands are Welsh. Vocalist Morty went on to sing backing vox for the Beach Boys, Tina Turner and Bryan Adamas, so he did OK for himelf. So, a happy ending but no way is this a fandango.

10 Sid Griffin - Front Porch Fandango
A short but sweet banjo and mandolin instrumental from the lead singer and Rick 12 slinger of the excellent Long Ryders - a Paisley Underground band who actually made it in the UK. The Ryders managed to combine country, Byrds style folk rock and punk into a high octane mixture, best appreciated on their "State of Our Union" album, which I wholeheartedly recommend. Any band which would cover "Billy Jean", "Dirty Old Town" and "Anarchy in the UK" in the same live set deserves your attention.

11 Steve Miller Band - Fandango
My wife's favourite singer and also a favourite of mine. His first few albums merged blues and psychedelia in a unique way as this track shows. Of course, "Fly Like an Eagle" introduced him to a wider audience, but the music just seemed to get "bigger" without actually having more impact. "Journey From Eden" on the same album as this track, is a song of true beauty and still has pertinence today.

Listen to the blackbird sadly sing
For you, for me
Look at all the pointless suffering
Humanity

12 Todd Rundgren and Sparks - Your Fandango
This is an odd one - with Todd and the Mael Bros, what do you expect? A bit of a reunion as Todd once produced Sparks. Lots of interesting sounds and textures - synth sequences, power chord guitar riffing, harpsichords, LOTS of castanets and great vocals from Todd, Russ and Ron. The whole thing is a bit mantra-ish with cod Mexican ay-yi-yi's creeping in from time to time. It's as strange as it sounds, but very listenable.

So, there you have it - twelve fandangos for your delectation.

Will you do the fandango?