27 Leggies is two years old today. And what better way to celebrate than with an album of cover versions by a load of unknown Belgians. If this blog stands for anything, it stands for unknown Belgians (and bringing Tsonga Disco to the masses of course).
The album goes by the name of "Clone: Version 0.1" and it came out in 2005 on the Sounds Familiar label. According to the sleevenotes Clone played most of the musical instruments, but there is no further information about he/she/them. There are lots of guest vocalists, who may well be Big in Bruges but none of whom had ever impinged on my consciousness before I spotted the CD going for €3 last week in the CD shop in Gare de Midi in Brussels.
Apart from the price, what attracted me to the CD was the choice of cover versions. These plucky Belgians have a go at the likes of Richard Hell & The Voidoids, The Jam, Roxy Music, Wire and many more of the sounds of my youth. Bung in a bit of Johnny Cash, Petula Clark and Peter Hammill and how could I resist.
As with all such endeavours, it is a bit of a mixed bag. Here are some of the more interesting efforts - covers of Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood, The Ramones and Them respectively. As a bonus, and a birthday treat for the blog, we also have Them with the original version of "I Can Only Give You Everything", the garage band standard and one of the first of many moments of musical genius from Mr Van Morrison.
"Some Velvet Morning" - Guy Swinnen with Ivy Smits, Kristin Brown and Catherine M
"Blitzkrieg Bop" - Perverted
"I Can Only Give You Everything" - Eric Judah & Prince Far Out
"I Can Only Give You Everything" - Them
Monday, 17 January 2011
Friday, 14 January 2011
Multiple Marabastads
A couple of months ago the excellent Soul Safari blog featured some old Township Jive singles from South Africa. Among them was a cracking little tune from 1969 called "Marabastad No. 2" by one Kid Zondi.
Jump forward to 2006 and our old friend Joe Shirimani, one of the premier movers and shakers on the Tsonga Disco scene, releases his excellent album "Tambilu Yanga". It features a different but equally cracking little tune also called "Marabastad 2".
Here they both are. Compare and contrast.
"Marabastad No. 2" - Kid Zondi
"Marabastad 2" - Joe Shirimani
For a bonus, here is Joe's first attempt at mastering that Marabastad beat.
"Marabastad" - Joe Shirimani
Meanwhile, elsewhere in South Africa...
Jump forward to 2006 and our old friend Joe Shirimani, one of the premier movers and shakers on the Tsonga Disco scene, releases his excellent album "Tambilu Yanga". It features a different but equally cracking little tune also called "Marabastad 2".
Here they both are. Compare and contrast.
"Marabastad No. 2" - Kid Zondi
"Marabastad 2" - Joe Shirimani
For a bonus, here is Joe's first attempt at mastering that Marabastad beat.
"Marabastad" - Joe Shirimani
Meanwhile, elsewhere in South Africa...
Thursday, 13 January 2011
More Magyars
We are sticking with the sounds of swinging Hungary, and today we really are swinging. Back in the early 1970s there was a bunch of cool dudes called Bergendy, led by the brothers Istvan and Peter Bergendy and including assorted other Istvans, Peters, Ferencs and Gyorgys. They were Hungary's premier exponents of "horn rock" and, on the basis of the one album I have heard, a really rather groovy blend of classic rock, psychedelia, pop and blue-eyed soul.
The album is called "Bergendy" - I wonder where they dreamed that up? - and was released on Pepita Records in 1972. It was re-released the following year in the then East Germany with the same title, a different cover and slightly different track listing. I picked up a copy of the original in Budapest last month with no great expectations, but it turned out to be a very nice surprise and well worth a listen if you can track it down. What follows are a few edited highlights.
"Zold Pokol" - Bergendy
"Skot Dudas" - Bergendy
"Jojj Vissza, Vandor" - Bergendy
Replace the "e"s in Bergendy with "u"s and you have burgundy. Burgundy is a type of wine. So is champagne. As these boys would be happy to demonstrate.
The album is called "Bergendy" - I wonder where they dreamed that up? - and was released on Pepita Records in 1972. It was re-released the following year in the then East Germany with the same title, a different cover and slightly different track listing. I picked up a copy of the original in Budapest last month with no great expectations, but it turned out to be a very nice surprise and well worth a listen if you can track it down. What follows are a few edited highlights.
"Zold Pokol" - Bergendy
"Skot Dudas" - Bergendy
"Jojj Vissza, Vandor" - Bergendy
Replace the "e"s in Bergendy with "u"s and you have burgundy. Burgundy is a type of wine. So is champagne. As these boys would be happy to demonstrate.
Sunday, 9 January 2011
Mellow Magyar Magic
Something suitably mellow for a wintry Sunday evening. I bought "Gingallo" by Agi Szaloki at the Christmas market in Budapest's Vorosmarty Square a few weeks ago. I heard it playing at a little wooden stall selling Hungarian folk albums. With the snow, the Christmas lights and the steam coming off the mulled wine it seemed to fit the mood perfectly. And it still sounds pretty good on a dull, cold day in London.
Agi Szaloki (or Szaloki Agi as it says on the album cover - for reasons best known to themselves the Hungarians print surnames first) is a folk and jazz singer whose voice I really like. As well as releasing her own albums she has also issued a joint effort with fellow female Hungarian singers Szilvia Bognar and Agnes Herczku, and has made a couple of guest appearances on albums by Oi Va Voi. "Gingallo" was released in 2009.
"Gingallo" - Agi Szaloki
"A Szeretom Pakular" - Agi Szaloki
Here is Agi in action a few months ago.
If Mister F could calm down and try to focus after that, this next clip has been added at his particular request.
Off you go, son...
Agi Szaloki (or Szaloki Agi as it says on the album cover - for reasons best known to themselves the Hungarians print surnames first) is a folk and jazz singer whose voice I really like. As well as releasing her own albums she has also issued a joint effort with fellow female Hungarian singers Szilvia Bognar and Agnes Herczku, and has made a couple of guest appearances on albums by Oi Va Voi. "Gingallo" was released in 2009.
"Gingallo" - Agi Szaloki
"A Szeretom Pakular" - Agi Szaloki
Here is Agi in action a few months ago.
If Mister F could calm down and try to focus after that, this next clip has been added at his particular request.
Off you go, son...
Friday, 7 January 2011
Landmark Moment
At some point today 27 Leggies welcomed our 30,000th visitor. I was so thrilled a did a little dance, made a little love and got down tonight. That figure puts us level with Steve Forbert and we have already started reeling in Traffic.
"Thirty Thousand Men" - Steve Forbert
"(Roamin' Thru The Gloamin' With) 40,000 Headmen" - Traffic
I thought I should play something by way of a tribute to our milestone visitor, but it proved more confusing than it should. The counter thingy in the bottom right can display details of visitors either by country or city. For some unknown reason when you look at the details by city, the total number of visitors shown is eleven higher than when you look at the details by country.
So depending on which total you believe, our 30,000th visitor either came from Hanoi in Vietnam or Port Elizabeth in South Africa. I have plumped for Port Elizabeth because... well, because to the best of my knowledge I haven't got any music from Vietnam in my collection. The shame!
The cool jazz dude Stompie Mavi, who sadly passed away just over two years ago, has been featured here several times before. Port Elizabeth was Stompie's old stomping ground, so here are a couple from him.
"Tyamzashe" - Stompie Mavi
"Stharara" - Stompie Mavi
For our other visitor, by way of consolation - if that is the right word - here are Hanoi Rocks.
"Thirty Thousand Men" - Steve Forbert
"(Roamin' Thru The Gloamin' With) 40,000 Headmen" - Traffic
I thought I should play something by way of a tribute to our milestone visitor, but it proved more confusing than it should. The counter thingy in the bottom right can display details of visitors either by country or city. For some unknown reason when you look at the details by city, the total number of visitors shown is eleven higher than when you look at the details by country.
So depending on which total you believe, our 30,000th visitor either came from Hanoi in Vietnam or Port Elizabeth in South Africa. I have plumped for Port Elizabeth because... well, because to the best of my knowledge I haven't got any music from Vietnam in my collection. The shame!
The cool jazz dude Stompie Mavi, who sadly passed away just over two years ago, has been featured here several times before. Port Elizabeth was Stompie's old stomping ground, so here are a couple from him.
"Tyamzashe" - Stompie Mavi
"Stharara" - Stompie Mavi
For our other visitor, by way of consolation - if that is the right word - here are Hanoi Rocks.
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Magical Milton
We haven't had any Little Milton up here for absolute ages, which is a sin of omission that needs to be put right.
Known to his Mum and Dad as James Milton Campbell Jr, the late Little Milton was a great blues guitarist and, in my humble opinion, one of the finest soul singers in the business. Today's picks are from the soulful side of his repetoire.
"We're Gonna Make It" - Little Milton
"Somebody's Changin' My Sweet Baby's Mind" - Little Milton
"Let Me Back In" - Little Milton
"Just One Step" - Little Milton
And for those of you with a hankering for some blues:
Known to his Mum and Dad as James Milton Campbell Jr, the late Little Milton was a great blues guitarist and, in my humble opinion, one of the finest soul singers in the business. Today's picks are from the soulful side of his repetoire.
"We're Gonna Make It" - Little Milton
"Somebody's Changin' My Sweet Baby's Mind" - Little Milton
"Let Me Back In" - Little Milton
"Just One Step" - Little Milton
And for those of you with a hankering for some blues:
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Looking Forward And Back
I thought about using my first post of 2011 to look forward to what the year might bring, but rapidly came to the same conclusion as Noel Coward.
"There Are Bad Times Just Around The Corner" - Noel Coward
So instead I decided to look back. Join me as we journey to Denmark at the beginning of the 1970s, courtesy of a couple of CDs I picked up when in Copenhagen a couple of months ago.
First up is an outfit called Pocket-Size, whose CD "In One Or Another Condition" contains - according to the only other English words on the cover - "newly discovered Danish psychedelic masterpieces from 1970". I don't know whether they are less hyperbolic in Danish. It is alright, but rather too heavy for my personal taste. This is probably the pick of the bunch.
"I'm So Sleepy/ Bake Your Own Cake" - Pocket-Size
Much better is a CD called "Hippieology Vol. 1", released by the Danish label/ online music shop Karma Music in 2005. It contains two albums: "Foreningen Til Livets Besyttelse" ("Society For The Protection Of Life") from 1971 and "Den Lille Prins" ("The Little Prince") from 1972.
From what I have been able to piece together, both albums came out of a hippy commune in Aalborg. The line-up appears to have been largely the same for both records, with the notable exception of one Susanne Hamilton from Copenhagen who sang and wrote several of the tracks on the first album.
"Foreningen Til Livets Besyttelse" is the more experimental of the two albums. "Den Lille Prins" is fairly conventional by comparison, containing as it does some discernible tunes and even some displays of musical competence, possibly as a result of them all being slightly less stoned without the malign influence of that Susanne and her fancy Copenhagen ways. Both albums have their charms; here is a selection from each.
"Betjent Larsen" - Foreningen Til Livets Beskyttelse
"Cirkus I Byen" - Den Lille Prins
For the clip I was going to feature a Prince video, but he has decreed they shall not appear on YouTube. Then I thought of trying the cover of "Raspberry Beret" by the Hindu Love Gods, who were the late Warren Zevon and most of R.E.M., but I could not find that either. So here instead is a solo performance from Warren in which he expresses a similar sentiment to that voiced by Mr Coward way back at the beginning of this ramble.
"There Are Bad Times Just Around The Corner" - Noel Coward
So instead I decided to look back. Join me as we journey to Denmark at the beginning of the 1970s, courtesy of a couple of CDs I picked up when in Copenhagen a couple of months ago.
First up is an outfit called Pocket-Size, whose CD "In One Or Another Condition" contains - according to the only other English words on the cover - "newly discovered Danish psychedelic masterpieces from 1970". I don't know whether they are less hyperbolic in Danish. It is alright, but rather too heavy for my personal taste. This is probably the pick of the bunch.
"I'm So Sleepy/ Bake Your Own Cake" - Pocket-Size
Much better is a CD called "Hippieology Vol. 1", released by the Danish label/ online music shop Karma Music in 2005. It contains two albums: "Foreningen Til Livets Besyttelse" ("Society For The Protection Of Life") from 1971 and "Den Lille Prins" ("The Little Prince") from 1972.
From what I have been able to piece together, both albums came out of a hippy commune in Aalborg. The line-up appears to have been largely the same for both records, with the notable exception of one Susanne Hamilton from Copenhagen who sang and wrote several of the tracks on the first album.
"Foreningen Til Livets Besyttelse" is the more experimental of the two albums. "Den Lille Prins" is fairly conventional by comparison, containing as it does some discernible tunes and even some displays of musical competence, possibly as a result of them all being slightly less stoned without the malign influence of that Susanne and her fancy Copenhagen ways. Both albums have their charms; here is a selection from each.
"Betjent Larsen" - Foreningen Til Livets Beskyttelse
"Cirkus I Byen" - Den Lille Prins
For the clip I was going to feature a Prince video, but he has decreed they shall not appear on YouTube. Then I thought of trying the cover of "Raspberry Beret" by the Hindu Love Gods, who were the late Warren Zevon and most of R.E.M., but I could not find that either. So here instead is a solo performance from Warren in which he expresses a similar sentiment to that voiced by Mr Coward way back at the beginning of this ramble.
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