Into The Valleys

Here at 27Leggies we had Irish week a couple of weeks back, and assorted Scots pop up reasonably frequently. So in the interests of Celtic equality today’s post comes from the Land of Song itself – Wales.

We start with possibly my favourite Welsh performer – John Cale. Here he is with “I’m Not The Loving Kind” from his 1975 album “Slow Dazzle”. I’m never quite sure listening to it whether it is a glass half full or glass half empty song.

http://www.box.net/shared/98l2njhz9i

Next up is a Welsh hero, Meic Stevens. He is often described as “the Welsh Dylan”, presumably for no better reason than that he plays the guitar and writes his own songs. I have never detected much stylistic similarity between the two. But he is bloody good, and when he sings in Welsh he is still more comprehensible than Bob is in English. Here’s his big pop hit, “Y Brawd Houdini”.

http://www.box.net/shared/2kb3gnp6cc

From the Welsh Dylan we move to the Welsh Elvis. To finish off this mini Eisteddfod, here is a clip of Meic’s brother Shaky with that woman from Skewen. Possibly the most frightening combination to come out of Wales since the Pontypool Front Row (and no hooker jokes please).



Logically next up should be Cornwall but shamefully, despite being part Cornish myself, I don’t think I have any Cornish music in my collection. I may need to dredge up a clip of “The Floral Dance” or something. Watch this space.

Mpharanyana on Monday (9)

This week's selection is "Bakithi". And that is really all I have to say on the subject.

http://www.box.net/shared/q41b9qs56i

Tribute to Hertfordshire

Apologies for the appalling contrived links today - it reflects either an excess or absence of inspiration, depending on your point of view.

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of watching the Harpenden Light Operatic Society's production of "Oliver!", starring my friend Jonathan as Fagin. Those of you who weren't there - which I am guessing is most of you - missed a treat. Here as a sort of tribute is a track by an Italian outfit called Oliver Onions who were active in the 1970s and whose day job was apparently writing the soundtracks for Terence Hill and Bud Spencer films. This is called "Same Situation".

http://www.box.net/shared/sxf285mjsu

Less than twenty miles from Harpenden is the scenic town of Watford, home of the "Watford Gap" service station. Here is Roy Harper singing about it.

http://www.box.net/shared/lerznc2smt

That was from Roy's 1977 album "Bullinamingvase". From the same album, here is a clip of him performing "One Of These Days In England".

The Postman’s Stubbly Chin

We finish our brief hippy trip with one of my all time favourite bands, the Incredible String Band. I was too young to see them in their prime, but was lucky enough to attend a couple of reunion concerts in London in 1997 and 2000. There were a lot of celebrity fans at the first one, including Robert Plant. My friend Conical stood next to him in the urinals and was too intimidated to pee.

I have also been to numerous Robin Williamson solo shows over the years and he never fails to charm, even on the occasion he was double-booked with a bad new wave band in the Sir George Robey (a now defunct grubby pub venue in north London). Today’s selection is one of Robin’s songs from “The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter” – “Koeeoaddi There”, about his childhood in Edinburgh.

http://www.box.net/shared/h2qrs29ut1

This song also helped to inspire another great song. Paul Siebel heard “The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter”, and was so entranced by it that he wrote a song about a “mystic band” who “swirl me in a magic all their own”. The song was “Then Came The Children”, and here it is. If you listen to this after “Koeeoaddi There” you’ll recognise the reference to the postman’s chin. There is also a reference to "Witches Hat", one of the other songs on the album.

http://www.box.net/shared/mu3y240aoo

We’ll end with a clip of the String Band from the “Be Glad For The Song Has No Ending” DVD. Here they are doing “All Writ Down”.

More Hippy Nonsense: Quintessence

I have been a fan of Quintessence ever since I first heard them on a second-hand copy of "Bumpers", an Island Records sampler from about 1970, that I acquired from a junk shop in Dorset. I fell right away for their groovy rock/Indian/flute/jazz combination.

They were one of the hippiest of all the hippy bands. They lived in Notting Hill Gate (where, as they put it in the song of the same name, "Things are great in Notting Hill Gate/ We all sit around and meditate"). They had their own guru. And they veered erratically between the sublime and the ridiculous, often in the same song. As an example here is "Cosmic Surfer":

http://www.box.net/shared/s6p1oojz29

Ride, Cosmic Surfer, Ride!!!

However my favourite track of theirs is still the one I heard first on "Bumpers", a storming live version of "Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Gauranga". Here it is:

http://www.box.net/shared/lbd4gg4xe4

And in a similar style here is a clip of them live at Glastonbury in 1971:



Ten years or so after that the drummer, Jake Milton, founded Blurt (of "A Fish Needs A Bike" fame). Very different. I may have to dig that one out for you.

Hippy Nonsense

Today’s contribution comes from Principal Edwards’ Magic Theatre, one of the numerous hippy collectives that occupied farmhouses in rural areas of the UK in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

They formed while students at Exeter University and were signed to John Peel’s Dandelion label. They released two albums on Dandelion, the second of which – “The Asmoto Running Band” – was released in 1971 and produced by Nick Mason of Pink Floyd.

By the time that album was released they had left Exeter and were living in a farmhouse near Kettering, hence “The Kettering Song”. Is it a savage indictment of the stale values of Middle England or just typical middle-class students sneering at the sort of people they would become within ten years – you decide.

http://www.box.net/shared/zguotrtfb5

Mpharanyana on Monday (8)

In this week's episode Mpharanyana serenades a young lady called "Maria".

http://www.box.net/shared/5ydh07tlmn

Maria is also the name of my brother Al's better half, and he regularly serenades her with this song as well. Unfortunately his voice is - to put it politely - not quite up to Mpharanyana's standard. So whatever pleasure she takes from the sentiment is offset by the pain of having to listen to him.

This is dedicated to them and Patsy Jr.