Frog-Pop Dept. - Vanessa Paradis

Plus Frenchie que ça, on meurt ...

I've been a fan since her extraordinary second album Variations, made with Serge Gainsbourg, up with who's shit she would not put, inspiring his "Paradis, c'est l'enfer" quote. I was living in France at the time, and the eye-popping video for Tandem [below, you skeevy perves - Ed.] got me rushing out for the record.

Since then, every release has been a subtle grower of a blast. She has impeccable taste, she's whip-smart, and she knows what she wants, which has given her the reputation of being a bit of a brat.

 

 

Arriving a scant seven years after her last, her latest album Le Retour Des Beaux Jours [below, Ed.] comes as a hugely welcome surprise (at least to je), and it's another partnership with the truly gifted Etienne Daho. Of all her albums, it's perhaps the most diverse, leaping effortlessly across style barriers, and because of this will be a swell introduction should youse bums be unfamiliar with her œuvre [Fr. egg - Ed.]. It's a damn shame you're too dumb to speak French, because the lyrics are as thoughtful and clever as ever, but you'll appreciate the grooves and the vibes and the sumptuous sound. And that elusive quality of Frenchie sophistication, which she has out th' ass.

My birthday present! Thanks, Nessa! Album O' Th' Year, and by some way.

Re-Post Dept. - In The Garden Of Scented Sitars

SITARSWAMI WRITES: A late-night Google search of my memory banks reveals that the sitar first entered public consciousness in early 1966, centered around a fifth-grade group art project. There were four of us huddled close to the school’s portable record player auditioning Rubber Soul. The three of us content to do the least amount of work acceptable had agreed with an idea put forth by our class’s sole long-haired boy: we make hand puppets of, and pretend to be, The Beatles performing a song off their latest record. Hazy recollection suggests we chose “Run For Your Life” for our quickly forgotten pantomime (was I Ringo or George?). I wasn’t a Beatles fan, due to my older sister’s short-term obsession, but “Norwegian Wood” tickled the tinder in my ten- year-old brain. Later that year, stoked by the release of “Paint It Black” and “Turn-Down Day,” the smoldering embers sparked into a slow, burning, infatuation.

If incense was the olfactory signpost of late-60’s flower power, then a sitar was the aural manifestation. On the strength of its 18, 19, 20, or 21 strings the sitar provided world music with its first inroad into western pop. Soon, the scent of sitars permeated society heralding a golden age. Its aromatic, yet sublime, spice spread into the far reaches of the entertainment industry -- from film soundtracks to comedy routines. Teen music magazines tried to follow the beat widening their reportage and fanciful profiles. In Hit Parader and Tiger Beat you could now devour articles on Ravi Shankar (“Ravi & Raga at Monterey Pop” or “It’s A Happening, A Sitar Sensation”) along with the Brian Goes Back To The Beach exposés and Zappa’s “Folk Rock is a Drag” Hagstrom guitar ads.

When some listeners proved allergic, science responded. Genetic experiments conducted by Dr. V. Bell at Danelectro laboratories successfully bred a sitar with an electric guitar. Creating, in retrospect, a questionable, if not-illegitimate, offspring and one who will not be heard in this article.

Smelling profit, record label executives used the whiff of a sitar to entice novice buyers. With fifty years hindsight, these cash-in attempts seem harmless, charmingly naive. Some, like Emil Richards’ Journey to Bliss, should be heard. Others (e.g., Flower Power Sitar by Rajput & the Sepoy Mutiny or Kali Bahlu’s Cosmic Remembrance on the glorious World Pacific label) aren’t listenable for more than a few minutes but manage to evoke a timeless “What were they thinking?” excitement. Proof that the western-pop-sitar craze had blanketed the globe was the album release, in India, of Balsara & His Singing Sitars’ Great International Hits, featuring “the exciting new sounds of sitars” playing classics like “Tequila,” “Edelweiss” and “These Boots Are Made For Walking.”

But it’s those few plucked or strummed moments of eternal bliss that we live for. When I hear sitar in any recording the endorphins flow and my mood elevates suddenly. Who can ask more of any instrument?

The bulk of songs found In the Garden of Scented Sitars were recorded in the 1960s. By the early 70’s the sitar had fallen increasingly out of fashion, but the seeds planted grew. Throughout the decades devoted musicians have tended to the garden and its admirers continue to record.

I’ve sprinkled a few familiar tracks along the garden path and rather than presenting the Four Or Five Guys© with well-considered and researched insight into each of the sixty-nine bouquets displayed, below you’ll find only random commentary and indiscriminate petals of thought. Let’s digress:

The Flower Power Atomizer

Brewer & Shipley wrote Noel Harrison’s (the UK’s answer to Nancy Sinatra) one toke beyond ode to her eyes and to her mind.

The ID Company lp features Inga Rumpf on one side and Dagmar Krause on the other. I&D had previously recorded together in the German folk-blues unit, the City Preachers, and it’s a bit unnerving to hear Dagmar sing a rollicking version of “An Old Shanty Town.” Inga went on to front Frumpy before going solo, while Dagmar joined Slapp Happy and Art Bears.

One side of (Farq favorite) Shawn Phillips’ non-lp single soars into Tim Buckley territory. You’ll find the flipside further along the path.

Sheb Wooley, the “Purple People Eater” perpetrator, lays waste to the counterculture.

Sopwith Camel delivers one of my sitar favorites. Who could have guessed that harmonica & sitar would blend so magically?

Ravi’s student, Warren Klein, ex-Factory and Fraternity of Man, adds age-appropriate sitar to Beck’s latter-day downer.

Ron Nasty, not Elvis Costello or Jeff Lynne, would have been the perfect replacement for John Lennon in the reformed church of The Beatles.

Every garden contains a poison bloom: Here, the A-side of The Meditations’ juicy, unbelievably bad, 45 frees the inner man with an overripe Elvis Presley-styled recitation b/w a b-side (appearing later) so creepy it reminds me of an incident related by a friend’s wife. She worked the front desk of a chain hotel in a small college town where the Beach Boys stopped for a one night stand. When Mike Love registered, he invited her up to his room after the show “to practice Transcendental Meditation.” Inspirational TM lyric: “Follow sense into infinity/When our day-to-day life flowers and blooms /and I touch reality.”

At the Shrine of the Paper Sun

Meghana Bhat introduces sitar jangle pop.
Now playing: the finest sitar pop instrumental ever waxed courtesy of Ravi’s nephew, Ananda .

Pastor John Rydgren issues a stern warning of the dangers to be found in the garden, simultaneously creating new dimensions in the middle of reality.

The Trees’ original version of Jane Delawney was ranked #1 in an informal poll taken by fellow sitar-heads of “songs that should have included sitar.” #2) “Summer Breeze” by Seals & Crofts, #3) the Bonzo’s “Kama Sutra,” followed by, at #4) either (pick one) “Iron Man” or “Planet Caravan,” with The Kinks “Fancy” rounding out the top five.

Erstwhile Bruce Brown surf instrumentalists The Sandals combine sitars & monster mash.

It’s not The Kinks, but the Smell of Incense is nothing to sniff at and will give you some idea re: #5 above.

One reviewed opined “(Hiromasa Suzuki’s) backward journey along the lights and shadows in search of the musical and cultural sources of mainland Asia, from the gates of India to the roots of China...” To me, it’s an alluring mix of electric piano & sitar, thoroughly intoxicating despite the worst abrupt fade-out encountered in years.

Clark & Marilyn Burroughs were The Joyride. Clark sang tenor with the Hi-Lo’s, a late 50’s- early 60’s vocal group and replaced Curt Boettcher as The Association’s arranger at their insistence. His work for the group commenced with “Windy.”

A Hidden Path Discovered

ILYABT, a collage of snippets from the best sitar film soundtrack. Resistance is useless in the face of Brute Force.

Presenting The Petals and the high-flying mushroom infused folk-rock that made Milwaukee famous.

I’ve not heard sitar-flavored bluegrass but Fit & Limo’s take on The Dead leads me to suspect it might play well.

A longtime Beatle impersonator and Ravi’s lesser-known daughter cover a George b-side.

Brothers released the only non-Mountain/Leslie West album on Windfall records. The album’s cover art would provide a great alternative to Farq’s superb work found on this set.

I’ve excluded a conspicuous number of rare and precious, or popular, sitar gems from this post – no Traffic, no Rolling Stones, Chocolate Watch Band, Vince Donofrio, Alison Gros, John Renbourn, Pentangle, Elmer Gantry, ISB, Donovan, Pretty Things. Boeing Duveen, not even Joe Harriott or the Zodiac Cosmic Sounds. Sorry, maybe next time!

 

REPOSTED IN ITS ENTIRETY FROM 11/9/22 - THANKS TO SITARSWAMI FOR THE RE-UP!

Kudos to Sitarswami for the swell sounds 'n screed!

Albums That Shouldn't Exist But Probably Will Dept. - Rural Free Delivery

Homesteadin' is the long-awaited first album from Rural Free Delivery, the side project of Jesse Wayne Cord (Ethyl Dream, Grits For Breakfast, Cord-Clark). Cut on a vintage TEAC cassette recorder at his Porch Records home studio in Dead Mule Flats, OR., Homesteadin' is a major-label release from the supergroup on Piehole Records.

Jesse Wayne Cord, yesterday

"It's a reaction to the times in which we're livin' in," Cord says. "I was kind of isolated from that whole pandemic thing, battling my own demons, and RFD is a way of processing the changes I was going through." How was the supergroup assembled? "I made a few calls to a bunch of friends and they were, like, when do we start?" (laughs). "Katy and Betty-Lou McAlister were on board from day one, they bring that Appalachian vibe to the table. Brett Sweeney (Fuelie Bros, Broken Plates) hung his hat on the door and set right in. And Shep Clark (Cord-Clark, Wineblossoms) laid down his signature beat. We did everything in one take. You can hear the coyotes!" (laughs). "The songs were just everyone sittin' and pickin' on the porch, and everything, like, flowed. You can't plan for that, it just happens. It's the best thing I ever done."

Tracks: Double Time Still Single/Homesteadin'/ Back On Track/Our Broken Hearts Will Heal/Oregon And Back/Winchester Carbine/Coyote Moon/Dogs, Horses, And Grits For Breakfast/O Montana/Lord You Were On My Mind

Homesteadin' is set for release as a double vinyl 10" Record Store Day Special, followed by a TinyDesk concert. "We're really hyped," says Jesse. 

 

You want this? Go ahead and record it. Somebody will eventually.

The Myra Nussbaum Interviews: Sitarswami™

 

Sitarswami Zoomcalls Mrs. Myra Nussbaum! Actual Foam-O-Graph© derived from sustainable shade-grown technologies, going forward!

Older readers will remember with some fondness elderly Bikini Tester Mrs. Myra Nussbaum. Although no longer part of the core narrative here at th' IoF©, her occasional lectures have proved as entertaining as they are educational [i.e. neither - Ed.], and garnered the prestigious Pork Bend Golden Pigs Knuckle Award for Use Of Internet. Kudos, Mrs. Myra!

In the first of what is sure to become a popular regular FoamFeature®, our iconic geriatric is pleased to present her first The Mrs. Myra Nussbaum Interviews interview, with reclusive mystic and Charter Four Or Five Guy© Sitarswami!

Mr. Swami spoke via computer technology from his lamasery high atop snow-girt Smeltville Mound, ND.

MMN Hello?

SS Is this Mister Beans? Art Beans?

MMN Hello? Am I pressing the right button, thing?

SS Mr. Beans, I'm calling about your car's extended warranty, Mr. Beans.

MMN For heaven's sakes! Why is this writing so small?

SS Hello? Art? Art Beans of 232a Crimp Street, Mingewater?

MMN Will someone get me my reading glasses? What's that buzzing sound? Oh dear.

[ERROR 404 NOT FOUND- Ed.]

Well, there we have it! To celebrate this achievement. Mr. Swami has generously donated one (1) autygraphed box set of his None More Sixties curatorial initiatives! To qualify for this once-in-a-lifetime Dream Deliverable™, simply state in a comment your favorite thing, like, literally, ever! Mr. Swami will choose the lucky winner from the entries received! Oh boy!

These swell long-playing disc record albums contain up to literally, like, dozens of sure-fire party favorites! Who will be the lucky winner?? Not you, probably! LOOOOOOSER!!!!!

 

Art Dept.

 

Real painting by real painter William Rochfort

For Girls! Dept. - Thirty Minutes Of Soft Machine For Girls! Now With Upgraded Artwork!

Inclusivity is a long and revered tradition here at th' IoF©! Our trail-blazing recognition of basic human rights for Bikini Testers has garnered plaudits worldwide, and our award-winning For Girls! series has adapted the most off-puttingly "difficult" bands to the blander tastes of the "weaker sex" (bless 'em!). Think of the series as the musical equivalent of Classics Illustrated comics [below left - Ed.] ! Those popular abridgements of otherwise unreadable literary masterpieces such as Moby Quixote and Don Dick instilled a love of Fine Literature in a whole generation!

Yes, we like to think that the For Girls! series is of equal importance! No longer shall the "little lasses" feel excluded from the fun of listening to "boys only" bands such as The Captain Beefheart, The Velvet Undergrounds, the Lead Zeppelins, Pink And The Floyds, The King Crimsons, and now, The Soft Machines!

We've smoothed out those irksome jazz-rock "rough edges", concentrating on the more hummable qualities of this oft-challenging combo! And although the purist may carp that some of the selections - blended seamlessly into a Thirty-Minute Medley O' Melody™ - are solo performances, no "dolly-bird" is going to bother her pretty little head about that!

So, if you know any chicks [you're kidding, right? - Ed.], or maybe someone you know claims to, why not give them a copy of this swell long-playing album LP record? Its feminine allure is heightened by the oh-so-sensitive cover design,  making it a swell companion for her Dory Previn albums!

TAB HUNTER SEZ!

"Say, fellers! This sure is one neat recording! Using the latest hi-fi equipment, Farq has created a disc which is sure to hit that coveted Number One spot nationwide! And let's get one thing straight - this isn't just for the gals! Why, there's plenty for us guys to dig, too! I like to play it while I relax poolside with such husky H'wood hunks as Rock Hudson, Monty Clift, Cissy Romero, Cary Grant, Morrie Gosfield, Spence Tracy, Ty Power, Mary Brando, Vince Price, Ray Burr, Randy Scott, Sal Mineo, Tony Perkins, Jimmy Dean, and Tom Cruise! They all agree this is Manly Music for the guy of today, and you will too!

Your Pal, Tab!"

 

 

 

This piece created in a fit of cabin fever during the rainy season. Please address all complaints to Babs.

Re-Up Re-Kwest Dept. - Michael Chapman

 

Porch Whittling Dept. - Tab Hunter

 

As we test our patience and good will to the limit waiting for Soft Machine ... For Girls! to appear, here's somethin' to tap yer callused feets to as you set on th' porch whittlin'! Yeppers, it's H'wood dreamboat Tab Hunter's country-style waxing from 1962, RFD!

What does RFD mean? What does "Tab" mean? What does "mean" mean" Why is I axin' meself dese dumb qweshuns?

Secret Origins Dept. - The Beatles

 

Softs, Separately Dept.

IoF©, yestiddy - rock n' sex god Hugh Hopper awarded prestigious Best Avant-Garde Record By An Ex-Soft Machine Bass Player Award from Bikini Testers Union Local 101!

 

Hugh Hopper's 1984 [1973, left - Ed.] oughta bin called 2001, because it was at least as far ahead of its time as that. That doesn't mean you'll want to listen to it, though, but its minimal, glitchy, scratchy, ruminative, and occasionally terrifying tone will at odd times be just the ticket, by George! Heavy Friends sittin' in on the dada-esque swing sessions include John Marshall (later sacked from the Soft Machine by Mike Ratledge), useless nuisance Lol Coxhill [lol - Ed.], Pye Hastings, Gary Windo, Malcolm Griffiths, and Nick Evans.

The deliverable is the hen's teeth Japanese edition, with slewage of xtry trx. Huzzay!

 

Robert Wyatt's first solo album [1970, left - Ed.] remains as challengingly daft as when a handful of Softs fans bought it just before it disappeared entirely. It plows much the same gritty, avant-gardey furrow as 1984, but with the frosting of occasional vocal whimsy. You have to admit his strenous efforts to avoid anything approaching a tune were remarkably successful.

A bonus is the inclusion of no extra tracks. Look, I like it, okay? Sometimes.

Kevin Ayers' first solo album [1969, right, no, just me having a little fun, left - Ed.] has tunes, charm, restrained whimsy, and never takes itself seriously. It's lovely album, and laid the foundation for the second most successful solo career of any member of Soft Machine! Which is setting the bar a bit low, but anyway. David Bedford knits sumptuous orchestral upholstery, and Mike Ratledge (possibly my Second Favorite Keyboard Player Of All Time) contributes anteater nose-blowing.

If Hopper's solo was ahead of its time, then Ayers was behind them. By 1969 the sixties were yesterday's mashed potatoes, and Joy Of A Toy sounded, and looked, like a relic from a past age. Five swingin' bonus tracks! It's like the seventies never happened.

As an inadequate thank you to all youse freeloadin' bums what has stuck wit' th' IoF© thru th' years (over 30,000 page views since the last post, by George!), these three warmed-over biscuits are added to the deliverables AT NO EXTRA COST to you. Mr. and Mrs. Music Consumer!

 

Yes, these three long-playing LP album records will be included in your sumptuous Softie package whether you want them or not! Play them in the Camry as you deliver the kids back to their mom! Oboy! Some swell fun right there!

Here's Mr. Ratledge, practicing his fingering at Saint Trop, summer of '67:

 

Ratledge kind of wandered away from the music business after leaving the Softs, the last original member to bail. I think he made a soundtrack to a TV documentary about moustaches, and various other bits and pieces, sacrificing his unique carpet-gargling tone for the anonimity of the synthesizer, but that's about it for the solo career. Good for him, I say. Other Fun Facts: he garnered a Philostophy Prize at Oxford (which is like Nerd Academy), married Marsha Hunt [phwoar - Ed.] and died this year, age 82, "after a short illness", the last of the original line-up to leave the planet. Good for him. A life lived.

 

This post funded in part by Adult Chew Toys™, Buttmonkey, NV.

Why Should I Do All The Work? Dept.

  

As Edfray (notveryprettymusic) said: "We have reached two million plus page-hits. Time to hang up the spurs and lay back."

Crawlspace Collectables Dept. Push-Button Radio And Cut-Up Culture In The City Of The Angels

 

 

 

 

 

William Burroughs knew what was happening before it happened. He sensed the fragmentation, the fissures spreading from some cultural San Andreas Fault, and he did his best to express it with the tools he had - typewriter and scissors. Teens hearing God in rock n' roll didn't wait for salvation, they punched the car radio buttons, cutting up the narrative - we want the world and we want it now. TV remotes enabled the visual equivalent, an optic restlessness mirrored in avant-garde film editing. The phenomenon coincided with the fractured vision of LSD. The confluence, the crucible, the fractal fringe of the fun zone®, was LA pop culture, an alchemical fusion of art and commerce not seen before or since. Maybe the people would be the times.

Three albums reflected and created the times; Van Dyke Parks' Song Cycle, Brian Wilson's SMiLE, and Zappa's Lumpy Gravy. Recorded simultaneously, each explored new studio techniques to break the flow, to shuffle and reshuffle the familiar into the unexpected, the bizarre, and the beautiful. And the funny. That's something often forgotten. Jokes are the first to the wall in the kultural putsch - you can see it happening now - woke is no joke. Smile is not a frown. Song Cycle's best gag is that it contains no songs at all. Lumpy Gravy is both a broken mirror reflecting LA, and an extended pants-down snork at its pretensions.

It's also worth noting that none of these albums was inspired by, or referred to, or needed, the "British Invasion," and that the over-regarded Beatles were already several steps behind the West Coast. Pepper, played after these, sounds like what it is, a Hallmark greeting card from a week in Hashbury. A little patchouli scenting the toytown vaudeville, but essentially business as usual. These three revolutionary albums blew the business model apart, a new American Gothic, a stained glass window constantly shattering into multi-colored shards.

Song Cycle was originally to be called Looney Tunes, a title that reflects its cartoonish playfulness, and I've given it a cover which combines LA's high society with its low humor. 

 

Mono and stereo Song Cycle re-upped by request.

"You Shall Hereon In Be Known As" Dept.

 

Notes: "Edit" means it has been futzed about with in one or more ways, not that it has been cut (!). Forty-five minutes is stretching it for an album, but fine for a CD. There are hours of outtakes and alternates for The Spotlight Kid, but I've added only those which I thought would lively up its bad self, because that's the main intent here. The biggest missing is Funeral Hill, which is a complete song but has never received a final, polished mix (it sounds like shit, pretty much) and is also another downer, man, and there are enough of those already!

I hope the connections with Lick My Decals Off, Baby are clearer with this "iteration", making it a more satisfying companion to that and Clear Spot, and less of a stand-alone "genre" album.

Mo' Beef on th' IoF©:

https://falsememoryfoam.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-tragic-band-horrible-and-vulgar-but.html

https://falsememoryfoam.blogspot.com/2021/07/up-close-and-personal-dept.html 

https://falsememoryfoam.blogspot.com/2021/02/kreeme-kurates-dept-captain-beefheart.html

 

This damn thing gave me the horse staggers to complete. I hope you think it was worth it!

Walton Goggins' Lesbian Cruise Disco! Dept.

Every downloaded deliverable PERSONALLY SIGNED by Walton Goggins!

 

You'll know H'wood leading man Walton Goggins from his unforgettable role as Enis McPenis on Amazon Prime's Cracker Carnage, but did you know his side hustle is DJ'ing on luxury cruise ships!? Walt told the story poolside as Kreemé [18 my ass - Ed.] served signature processed ham packet water n' snailfoot smoothies!

FT3 Heyy Waltie-baby! Th' Gogster! Lookin' gooo-ood! 

WG Why, thank you, Farq!

FT3 Bring us up to speed anent your briny stints as nautical tunemeister!

WG It all started when I landed the DJ gig on Lesbian Cruise lines. I'd always wanted to visit th' Isle O' Lesbian which is as you know one of the Roman-style isles set as they are in the wine-dark waters of the Augean Ocean. But imagine my surprise when I discovered it was a floating hen party! The whole deal was for babes too old or homely to get a guy! So naturally I made up a mixtape of tunes they could relate to, get them out on the dancefloor even though there was like no guys to ask them!

FT3 And you've like brung signed souvenir digital-style CD discs to pass out to th' Four Or Five Guys©?

WG I surely have, Farq! I think they'll enjoy the oh-so-feminine selections!

FT3 I'm sure they will, and can only add they make swell gifts for any lonely gals what can't catch a man! Thanks for swinging by!

This post made possible by a disturbing lack of good taste and sense of restraint. To get the full force of the embedded humor, you need to download the deliverable AND read th' screed.

The Family That Plays Together Dept.

Cheersh! *hic*. Note Chappo taking a modest position far left - even though he had a magnetic stage presence, he was no showboat (like, f'rinstance, Rod Stewart), and the band was a true band of brothers.

Another binge-fest for a band that hasn't yet garnered enough IoF© real estate, Family. One of the most idiosyncratic, eccentric, and flat-out fantastic bands ever to conquer the UK's prestigious polytechnic circuit, Family left a legacy of albums that qualify as first tier releases. As thirsty as the Faces, Family sobered up in the studio, never short changing, always delivering. Great covers that spared no expense, either.

1968. Aaaaaah.

 

Designed by Swinging London groovy graphic designer Alan Aldridge. Him what done the Beatles Illustrated Lyrics books.

 

 

 

Th' th' that's all, folks!

It Crawled From The Crawlspace Dept. - Return Of The Nez

I used this image before it appeared on the official "Different Drum" comp. Just sayin'.

In 1968, Michael Nesmith went to Nashville and recorded an album's worth of songs, mostly his own, with Nashville's own "Wrecking Crew", the studio musicians who constituted Area Code 615. There were no better musicians on the planet. John Sebastian wrote Nashville Cats about them. And Nesmith was an accomplished songwriter with a  bunch of tunes that deserved the best. The resulting solo album, spectacularly lovely as it was, never materialised. Because Music Business.

Some of the songs drifted onto Monkees albums, others waited decades before Rhino anthologised them. Nesmith has denied (in his splendid autobiography) ever thinking he was inventing, or even playing, country rock. "I was playing country music," he says. But here, on several cuts, his pop smarts show through just as strongly as his country roots. Nesmith sings bang in the middle of the note, in the tensile tone so many Texans have, like stretched barbed wire, and the band plays with that country-sprung back-porch beat that never gets old.

So here it is, hi-fi enthusiasts! The best album he never made. That's okay. Don't thank me or nuthin'. I'm having more fun than you are.

 

Always a pleasure to re-up th' Nez, this time in response to a request from Dr. Fu Man Chu.

 

Whatever Happened To Judy Mayhan? Dept.

Judy Mayhan has one of the greatest country/rock/blue-eyed soul voices I ever heard. She has that heartbreak catch, that undersung shiver, like it's all about to fall apart. She has restraint and power, and when she hits the high notes the top of your head lifts off.

She also has the most astonishing lineup of backing musicians on this, her second [sophomore - Ed.] album. Duane Allman, playing with exquisite taste, all over it. Lowell George (rhythm guitar and flute!), and the godlike Richie Hayward. Warren Klein (Fraternity Of Man) on sitar (!), Arif Mardin on string arrangements. The Muscle Shoals mafia on everything else. But this is absolutely Judy's show, she's not drowned out but lifted up by the session talent.

Did I mention the songs? They're terrific, and she wrote 6/10ths of them. The album plays out with versions of You Are My Sunshine and I Shall Be Released that evoke Joe Cocker at his finest.

Oh - nice sleeve, too!

This post made possible by reading about the album in Ben Fong-Torres' book about Little Feat, Willin'. He doesn't mention how great it is, though. Psychfan provides links to two other albums [below - Ed.] in the comments.

 

The Spirit Is Willing Dept.

Lovingly color-corrected from original source. You don't care.

All albums enhanced from raw FLAC files to @193©, using IoF©'s patented Human Ear™ process. You'll discover a new world of sound excitement listening to these swell LP recordings, pre-adjusted for RIAA curve!

Tweaked so subtly [above - Ed.] you didn't notice!

 

Copyright© law makes this [above - Ed.] impossible in the real world, but th' IoF© ain't that.

Tweaked so subtly you didn't notice!

 

This crappy quality [above - Ed.] is the best available. Gee whiz. So much for th' internet.

 

 

A change of pace for a while. Spirit have been guests on th' IoF© intermittently, but they deserve their own dedicated timeshare accommodation. They're just a magical magic band I've loved forever, always found time to listen.