Love That Album Podcast Episode 152 - Nick Drake "Five Leaves Left"

 

Think of any number of singers of the 20th century to take to a stage: Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Bon Scott, Nina Simone.....”shyness” would not be any sort of adjective you'd use to describe these people.

We're not focusing on any of them this time around.

Welcome to episode 152 of Love That Album Podcast.

To say that Nick Drake suffered from shyness could be the greatest understatement you could make about him. He only performed live a few times in his short life, and from all documented accounts, those performances were memorable for the wrong reasons – not acknowledging his audiences, looking down, walking off stage mid song....the same can be said for his interactions with people off the stage.

However, it would also be fair to say that Drake knew his way around a song – both as composer and musician.

I am joined by fellow Nick-Head, Antony Rotunno. Antony is the host of three excellent podcasts: Life & Life Only, Film Gold, and Glass Onion: On John Lennon. It is the third of these shows that got my attention. On every show he tackles Lennon related subjects (with occasional forays into The Beatles) to work out what made Lennon tick. I am sure that he relished the opportunity to talk about a musician with no Beatles connection whatsoever for a change. The focus of the show is Drake's debut album, Five Leaves Left. However, we speak in detail about all three of his albums as well as events in his life, his string arranger Robert Kirby, similar musicians, and speaking in a posh accent.

In addition, there are two real treats for you this time around. We hear from Antony's friends, Kester Jones and Melanie Lawrence who pre-recorded their take on a beloved Nick Drake tune, and Antony himself armed with his guitar tackles another tune. These performances are wonderful and a great part of the show.

My gratitude to Antony for bringing his time and thoughts to the show. A really exciting development is that going forward, Glass Onion: On John Lennon will be part of the Pantheon Network.

You can find much Antony related shenanigans (blog posts, albums, podcasts) at https://www.antonyrotunno.com/

Kester's music can be heard at https://soundcloud.com/kesterjones. Mealnie's music can be heard at https://open.spotify.com/album/34j3oNlQyl2olqyo4bQHM7?si=cNb5DhoxRBeENssyjk7oLQ&fbclid=IwAR3ztpO_vSx31pkqoxn7yBet3qymVpI5d_y43u48Gxu9L7rANoqig48E690&nd=1

Download this and any other episode of LTA from wherever you prefer getting your podcasts.

Love That Album is proudly part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Go to http://pantheonpodcasts.com to check out all their great shows.

You can send me feedback at rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/lovethatalbum

If you’d consider writing an iTunes review I’d be immensely grateful. However, it’d be even better if you told a friend about the podcast and Pantheon – at a barbecue, over coffee, on social media….whatever way you choose, consider me grateful. 

Proudly Pantheon

Download episode 152 from here.

Love That Album Podcast episode 136 - Interview with John Penhallow about Fairport Convention

The story of English rock music in the 1960s often revolves around some mates meeting up and bonding over a love of blues music or wanting to be the next Beatles.

Then there's Fairport Convention.

Welcome to episode 136 of Love That Album podcast.

Fairport Convention assembled around 1966 and rehearsed in the same neighbourhood as another band of Muswell Hillbillies. The line-up has changed over the years, but the mission has always been to adapt folk music to a rock setting. Early on, they interpreted contemporary folk songwriters from North America like Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Before too long though, the band looked too their own history to make British folk music contemporary.

Bondi Cigars' guitarist Shane Pacey joins me once again, and we speak with John Penhallow, the first manager of Fairport Convention. John was there right at the very beginning due to his friendship with guitarist Simon Nicol. He played a large part in looking after the band on day-to-day business before Joe Boyd, so he regales us with stories from that period.

We speak about the early FC days, his work in archiving Sandy Denny's music, Cropredy, some band called The Ravens, and the late Judy Dyble. Beyond telling the story of a band, this is a great story about friendship and community. What other long running band still has ex-members regularly turn up to play with them?John was very generous with his time and memories. Shane and I are thankful for him making himself available.....on his birthday weekend at that!!! Also huge thanks to David Kelly for arranging this, and Mark Snowden for getting us to clarify a very important part of Fairport history.

Please explore Shane's music at both https://bondicigars.com/ and https://shanepaceytrio.com.au/

Download this episode of LTA from Spotify, Stitcher or iTunes (search for “Love That Album podcast”). Love That Album is proudly part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Go to http://pantheonpodcasts.com/ to check out all their great shows.

You can send me feedback at rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/lovethatalbum.

If you’d consider writing an iTunes review we’d be immensely grateful. However, it’d be even better if you told a friend about the podcast and Pantheon – at a (socially distanced) barbecue, over coffee (on Skype), on social media….whatever way you choose, consider me grateful.

Right click to download episode 136 here.

Love That Album podcast Episode 108 - Till The Night Is Gone: A Tribute to Doc Pomus & Beat The Retreat: Songs by Richard Thompson

It's 2018....a new year, but Love That Album podcast is still here to party like it's 2011 when it got started.

For episode 108, Maurice is presenting a solo show to talk about a pair of tribute albums.

Tribute albums can be a fairly dodgy excuse to get a variety of performers to do a cover of the artist in question. These albums can lack cohesion and just be a collection of songs rather than a solid work in its own right. Often, some of the actual covers lack any real inspiration.

Maurice presents two albums he feels stand apart from the tribute pack. The first is Till The Night Is Gone: A Tribute to Doc Pomus and Beat The Retreat: Songs By Richard Thompson. Tune in to hear why these albums work so well. The songs presented by a wealth of great songwriting contemporaries combine adventurous arrangements some distance from the familiar versions, along with " comfort food" arrangements. Artists such as REM, Lou Reed, Dr John, BB King, John Hiatt, Shawn Colvin and the Bling Boys of Alabama among many others pay tribute across both of these wonderful albums

Eric Reanimator chimes in for his Album I Love segment with a couple of tribute albums. He talks about Never Say Dinosaur, a tribute to Petra and More Oar: A Tribute to Skip Spence.

So let us pay tribute to these tribute albums, and hopefully you'll pay tribute to the podcast by giving it a listen.

You can download the show by searching for Love That Album in the iTunes store or downloading streaming directly from http://lovethatalbum.blogspot.com.

Send the show feedback at rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/lovethatalbum.

If you enjoy what you hear on the podcast, please tell a friend or ten to tune into the podcast.

Right click to download episode 108 here.

Love That Album episode 61 - Richard and Linda Thompson "Shoot out The Lights"

What do Lamb of God, REM, Weddings Parties Anything, Neko Case, Gerry Rafferty and Iron Maiden have to do with Richard and Linda Thompson and their 1982 masterpiece “Shoot Out The Lights”? Some of the links are actually very tenuous, but they’re brought up nevertheless in episode 61 of Love That Album, which is devoted to discussing said masterpiece. I am joined by the Knife Licker himself, Mr John Ross co-host of the wonderful Feed My Ears podcast to talk about just happy subjects as infidelity, death, marriage woes, and amusement park rides. Join us!!! We had a lot to talk about including the back story behind the recording of the record.

Eric Reanimator is back on board for his Album I Love segment to talk some more excellent Swedish rock. This time he brings us some Hellacopters action with their EP Strike Like Lightning.

You can download the podcast at iTunes by searching for “love that album”. You can also stream or download it at “http://lovethatalbum.blogspot.com” or
“http://lovethatalbum.podbean.com”

Send me any feedback at rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/lovethatalbum.

I'd be ever so grateful for any feedback left for the show on iTunes.

Right click to download and save Episode 61 here

Love That Album Episode 42 - Richard Thompson - Electric

Hard to believe it’s taken 42 episodes of Love That Album to get to discuss a Richard Thompson album (considering my obsession with his music). Still, the great songwriter and guitarist’s guitarist has released a new LP and that seemed a good a reason as any to chat about it on the podcast.

My guests for this discussion are John Ross (convenor of the excellent Feed My Ears FB page), returning for his second appearance on the show, and LTA newcomer Dave McLemore. Dave, like me, was a long time admirer of RT, and John had his music forced down his throat by me. So does the new album stand up to the standard set by previous recordings? Has John become a fan or did all the hype I created set RT for a fall in John’s mind? The album covers breakups (both tragic and humourous), randy senior citizens, political campaigners and guys just trying to survive on a meagre wage….usual singer/songwriter fodder.  Comparisons are also made to Australian songwriting hero, Paul Kelly. John, Dave and I have a blast chatting about this record.

Eric Reanimator is back talking about an EP from 90s band Animal Bag (whom he discussed in the recent Shooting The Shit episode). It’s good stuff.

You can download the podcast at iTunes by searching for “love that album”. You can stream or download it at “lovethatalbum.blogspot.com”.

The podcast can also be listened to via Stitcher Radio. Download the app from stitcher.com, and listen to any episode streaming over your Android or Apple device after searching for “love that album”.

Send me any feedback at rrrkitchen@yahoo.com.au (written or mp3 voicemail) or join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/lovethatalbum and start a discussion on your favourite guitar hero / song writing guru.

Right click to download and save Episode 42 here

Richard Thompson & The Art of the Break-Up Song

I’ve not done a comprehensive survey, but over a lifetime of listening to pop music, I think it’s safe to say that the majority of songs in popular stylings relate to matters of the heart. They might be songs of being in love or songs of being out of love. However, both sides of the subject have been a well-mined source of subject matter for tunesmiths since Adam said to Eve, “Wanna hang out?” I’m sure, dear reader and song-fan, there is nothing new in anything I’ve said so far.

I’m sure that someone attempting their PhD has written some lengthy piece on why we continue to listen to the same subject matter over and over again. Of course, there have been other song-writing movements over the last 50 or so years that have proved popular – songs about slaying dragons in Middle Earth (hey nonny nonny), getting high, telling the older generation they suck (funny how Roger Daltrey is still singing  My Generation in his sixties), and transvestisism.  Still, the songs about being in and out of love don’t quite go away.

I came to the music of Richard Thompson relatively late, about 1990. An announcer on Melbourne community radio continually raved how Thompson was the second coming. The claim was that Thompson was a guitarist’s guitarist (Eric who?), a songwriter who could really tell a story and convey a mood, and he even had a wonderful voice. My interest was piqued. I had to look into his music for myself.  I went into a store that had a copy of a new 3 CD Thompson anthology called “Watching The Dark”, and asked to listen to one of the discs.

The first song I heard was called “Al Bowlly’s In Heaven”. This was a moment in my life I will never forget.

Each verse is like a chapter of a great book that hooks you in from the opening line (“We were heroes then, and the girls were all pretty / and a uniform was a lucky charm that bought you the keys to the city”). The song tells the story of a returned World War 2 soldier, who finds that life in peace time affords him none of the respect he is due and he received during the war. He goes from being revered to being ignored by society, not even having a place to lay his head on at night. During leave he would attend dances, and  Al Bowlly, the big band leader, represented all that was good in the veteran’s life during the war. Now Bowlly’s gone, the war is over, and society has ditched our narrator to the dustbin of recent history as they try to grapple with the difficulties of rebuilding their lives after war. Thompson’s narrative is riveting – and I haven’t even referred to his superlative musicianship.

But that’s not the song this article is about.

In fact, I wish to talk about three songs, all connected thematically - they could even be joined to form a concept album - but all taking a very different approach. The start of this article referred to songs covering matters of the heart. So many pop songs, refer to the aftermath of a relationship as a time of great sorrow or a time for the song’s protagonist to move on. Thompson doesn’t take such a simple approach in his songs.

The three songs I wish to address are:

(a) Razor Dance

(b) For Shame Of Doing Wrong (or Sandy Denny's cover)

( c) Tear Stained Letter

“Razor Dance” shows the nasty aftermath of a relationship gone very wrong.

After the death of a thousand kisses
                Comes the catacomb of tongues

Who cans spit the meanest venom
                From the poison of their lungs

Each party to the separation “dances” dangerously around the other one to see what they can get away with, first passive-aggressively, then with full-on aggression as “gravity pulls them in”. The music reflects this tension with Thompson’s guitar playing continuous quavers in an ominous staccato fashion. “Take your partners for the razor dance” Thompson calls, but when does the band call time?

“For Shame of Doing Wrong” was recorded by Thompson with his then-wife Linda on vocals, but for me the better interpretation is by ex-Fairport Convention lead singer (and Thompson cohort), the late great Sandy Denny. Thompson himself has sung it live, but Sandy’s interpretation gets to the heart of the matter. The song is sung from the perspective of someone who sees an ex-lover and unburdens herself with complete remorse over having done them an unspecified wrong.  She recalls the ideal times before “we went our separate ways”. There are always constant visual reminders of the good things she used to have, and implores her ex to not pay “for her deceiving heart”.

 On the surface, my description could be about any number of pop songs. However, this is a Richard Thompson song. The complete and utter regret of the singer is completely believable. This ain’t an ordinary “I know I’ve done you wrong, but please take me back” song – it’s a Richard Thompson “I know I’ve done you wrong, but please take me back” song. The singer knows she doesn’t deserve forgiveness, but begs for it anyway. The chorus contains one of the saddest lines I’ve heard in a lover’s lament  - “I wish I was a fool for you again.” When Sandy Denny sang this, and by extension Richard wrote it, you really believe it. The music is mid-tempo and in a major key, bus still somehow maintains the melancholic regret of the lyric.

Then there’s “Tear Stained Letter”. This is a funny aftermath-of-a-break-up song. It’s performed with Zydeco leanings (and was covered by Zydeco star Jo-el Sonnier) and sounds happy. The lyric betrays that with that with the wariness of the protagonist who’s broken up acrimoniously with someone, has decided to get on with his life, but lives in fear for the constant tear-stained letters left under the door. Keep an eye out for your pet rabbit!!! This isn’t a song that says, “We’ve split up, I miss you”. It says, “We’ve split up, now can you piss off?”

Have I mentioned this song is funny? When our protagonist is describing his violent ousting from the couple’s shared lodging, he sings that she “danced on his head like Arthur Murray (if you have to ask, you’re too young – trust me it’s a funny line). This is the only rock song I know of that rhymes “tea” as such: “I like coffee and I like tea / but I just don’t like this fiddle-dee-dee” Listen to the whole song. It’s clever and funny.

So Thompson has taken the one topic, and approached it from three different avenues. There’s the  dramatic approach of a mutually agreed acrimonious breakup. There’s the incredibly sad mournful regret of a relationship that could have continued if not for a wandering heart. Finally, there’s the humorous approach of a man fearing for his life from an unstable ex (that doesn’t read right, but it’s essentially true).

As suggested earlier, these songs can be connected as the one story. There’s the initial mutually agreed acrimonious breakup, followed by a period of mournful regret by one of the partners, but the story is taken up by the other partner who just want to move on without loss of life or limb. A Richard Thompson musical in the offing?  If lesser songwriters can plunder their back catalogue, surely RT has a winner with a musical based on drama, suspense and humour. Richard, if you’re reading this, my management services are at your disposal.