What are you listening to now?

[That Little Tramp]

Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings

[velvet phil]

Mojo - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers

[fljoe0]

I've been listening to Hill Country Review who are a band that is kind of an off-shoot of The North Mississippi Allstars. The Allstars have two brothers Cody and Luther Dickinson and their late father, Jim produced their albums. Jim Dickinson was a session musician (as well as a solo artist) and played piano on Wild Horses. While brother Luther is playing with The Black Crowes, brother Cody formed Hill Country Review. Hill Country plays similar music as the allstars but rock a little harder. Luther and Cody are always playing somewhere in some band. They have as many side projects as Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers and Gov't Mule). Luther is a great slide guitar player, check out their various bands:

http://www.nmallstars.com/

[velvet phil]

Something else - The Kinks

[fljoe0]

Phil - I've really developed an appreciation for The Kinks over the past few years. Even though they had a few hit singles, they were never big in the US so other than the songs on the radio, I never really paid much attention to them. A few years ago I bought the SACD reissue of The Muswell Hillbillies and I thought that was great and started digging deeper and found lots of good stuff. I got one album called "Ultimate Collection" which is a greatest hits album (but most of them were not hits in the US) and loved all those 60's era songs. That song "Waterloo Sunset" is great.

[velvet phil]

Phil - I've really developed an appreciation for The Kinks over the past few years. Even though they had a few hit singles, they were never big in the US so other than the songs on the radio, I never really paid much attention to them. A few years ago I bought the SACD reissue of The Muswell Hillbillies and I thought that was great and started digging deeper and found lots of good stuff. I got one album called "Ultimate Collection" which is a greatest hits album (but most of them were not hits in the US) and loved all those 60's era songs. That song "Waterloo Sunset" is great.

Try the album "The Village Green Preservation Society" think you would like it. Ive been a fan for years but only of their singles and only owned a few of their albums. In the past two months i have bought quite a few of their albums,the mid 60s albums are the best and a joy to listen to.

[andy]

Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings

This article might have a serious impact in how you listen to Robert - for the better that is! :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/may/27/robert-johnson-blues

[fljoe0]

I love those Robert Johnson recordings - I'm going to have to check out the slower speed now. That Robert Johnson article reminds me of something I did a few years ago. I am a big Neil Young fan and I found a 12" single of "Sample And Hold" on e-bay and bought it. "Sample And Hold" was from Neil's electronic "Trans" album in the early 80's where Neil sang with a vocoder to synthesize his voice. Trans is not Neil's finest moment but I wanted this strange 12" single that was labled as a dance mix (more of Neil's strange sense of humor). I received it and put it on the turntable and listened in amazment at this bizzare single where "Sample And Hold" was slowed down considerably. I listened to this a couple of times chuckling to myself at the joke that Neil must be playing calling this a dance mix. Of course later I discovered I was playing this 12" single at 33RPM when it was supposed to be 45RPM. Because he was singing through this vocoder, it masked the fact I was not playing this at the correct speed. I felt kind of stupid when I figured it out. I thought Neil was just playing a joke on us. To tell you the truth, I think it was a better song at 33RPM.

[andy]

LOL !!!

[fljoe0]

Back to The Kinks - I'm still listening to them. I need some British perspective on The Kinks.

Velvet Phil got me on a Kinks kick a couple of weeks ago and I've been listening to The Kinks a lot the past couple of weeks. I picked up the "Village Green" cd and absolutely love it - it took me a few spins to get into it but it's great. So anyway, my exposure to the Kinks growing up in the US (born in 1961) was the couple of big early hits they had here (You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night and Lola) and the arena rock resurgence they had in the late 70's that was fueled by The Pretenders cover of "Stop Your Sobbing" and Van Halen's "You Really Got Me" and The Kinks albums "Misfits" and "Low Budget". So basically, I missed all the great stuff in between. Lately, as I've been digging into the great 60's songs they had and I'm beginning to wonder - were they The Who before The Who? I'm looking at the dates of their songs and I see that the garage sound they had pre-dated The Who and The Village Green album pre-dated "Tommy". I was reading something on "Village Green" and apparently that album didn't chart in any country! So anyway, where do The Kinks stand in the British view?

Another question for The British. Who is that announcer on all of the BBC recording cds? Did he do that for 100 years or what? Every cd I have of BBC recordings has that same announcer (he had a tendency to over explain the songs and talk over the beginning of songs coming out of the commercial breaks).

[velvet phil]

The DJ is i think Alan Freeman,but i will have to have a listen to make sure. Have you heard the album "Arthur" a classic !. I think the main reason The Kinks are not as popular as they should be is all down to their very english lyrics. Maybe people dont think its cool enough !!

[Funcity]

I've been a huge lifelong Kinks fan. (also american). Ray Davies is one rock's great storytellers. the early to mid 60's is a stunning body of work and though I can't prove the link I believe he was a big influence on Reed. the early sound was certainly that of a proto-punk band and I consider " I'm not like everybody else" to be one of the first punk songs ever recorded in england.

[mister-ray]

Maybe the DJ was John Peel ? the greatest who ever was or will be.

[fljoe0]

Whoever he is, you can hear him on all kinds of cds of the BBC recordings that have been released recently. I know he is on the Cream cd (he calls them The Cream), the Led Zeppelin cds, and The Kinks. I'll have to check my Bowie and Who but I hear that guy all over these BBC recordings. And while I'm on the subject, kudos to the BBC for all of these fantastic recordings. Most of the live albums from the 60's groups sound like crap (Got Live If You Want It as an example) except for these BBC recordings. What were these BBC recordings from, radio shows? Some of these groups must have been on all the time. The Kinks for instance have an official 2 cd set and I found a bootleg with 3 more cds of performances that didn't make the official cd. I have a boot of 4 cds of Zeppelin performances that didn't make the official cds. If it wasn't for the BBC recordings, I don't think there are any decent sounding early Zeppelin recordings.

[velvet phil]

Niceely out of tune - Lindisfarne , lots of memories