After collecting rock albums, books and rock magazines for over forty years it's about time to open up the archives and put some of my favorite music on the big net. The music here is intended for review purposes only and is not a substitute for the original record company product. Please contact us directly regarding the removal of any potentially infringing material. READERS: Please use us as a buyer's guide and support the artists.
Usually i don’t like coverbands. But lately I discovered this band. They do the songs of my hero John Martyn but in their own style and with respect to the original artist. So, nothing left to do but show you a video of the John Martyn Project. This mix has original live-video from YouTube and audio from their first album: Volume One. Hope you ‘ll like it also… Click on the image for the video.
What better way to do a Daniel Norgen concert in the woods ? This year he played at the Bostheater, Ommen in the Netherlands. A fall from my bike prevented me to go meself, but the family shoot some video for me, and bought me a signed t-shirt.
Here’s a link to the full concert-video. Please be patient for it will take some time to start. The video was shot by my daughter J.G.S. thanks! No copyright infringement or moneytising intendent. This was made by and for fans of Daniel Norgrens’ music. Please click on the picture below to start the video. Thanks to Daniel and Band for another beautiful concert !
It’s december again. Time flies when you love listening to music…. December has provided some beautiful music through the years. Here’s an example. Musicians from various countries get together to perform Airto’s Missa Spiritual.
Here’s is an excerpt of that Missa. No Flora Purim this time but other musicians are none the less then Gil Evans on synthesizer, from Belgium: Philip Catherine on guitar, all the way from India: Tiruk Gurtu on percussion, and Fredy Santiago & Airto from Brasil.
The live concert took place in the old grand Saint Martin church in Cologna. German WDR orchestra and Vocal Ensemble. The german broadcast company did a fine job of recording this Misa. Here’s an excerpt of that concert…
Here’s some other great music of Airto from an earlier post >>>>
After collecting records (LP’s) for over 40 years I decided to put a big part of it for sale on the Discogs site. So far only the titles from A to D are published. I love to sell the rare items to collectors and proud that my seller’s rating is still a 100% !
And now it’s time for the next step… As I am growing older, and my kids are listening to a total different kind of music, I decided to put the core collection for sale too.
No easy step but the sweet memories will always be there. So here they are: beautiful and rare items of The Grateful Dead.
Records, books, clothes & memorabilia. You will find it all here
Not just products but also a Grateful Dead Blog
And this is just the beginning. More ‘core’ collection will follow: records of Robert Wyatt, Fela Kuti, Gong and John Martyn. So, please. Stay connected if you’ re interested !
The flying pot head pixies got my attention again. While going through the albums on the attic I found this little gem. Never gave it much attention thinking that it was a Gong Compilation album…
But it is actually a 1970 german re-release of the original 1969 album of Daevid Allen and Gilly Smyth with, among others, Didier Malherbe.
It has become quite an collectable item nowadays and i think also because of the nice album cover and artwork of Daevid Allen (see photo’s below).
The top right corner of the frontcover has a cut-out star with the letters “Supergroups” above.
Daevid Allen’s Gong – Magick Brother
Label: Metronome – MLP 15.372, BYG Records – MLP 15.372
Series: Super Groups
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Gatefold
Country: Germany – Released: 1970
Recorded September and October, 1969, Studio ETA & Studio Europa Sonor, Paris and first published in 1969 on BYG Records. All tunes by Gilli Smyth.
Early Morning Side
Mystic Sister (Voice – Tasmin Smyth) 5:54
Change The World (Bass – D. Gewiffler) 4:09
Glad To Sad To Say 3:45
Chainstone Chant : Pretty Miss Titty
(Bass – Bare Phillips) 4:49
Fredfish : Hope You Feel OK 4:32
Late Night Side
Ego 3:58
(Bass – E. Freeman, Piano – B. Green)
Gongsong 4:10
(Bass – D. Gewiffler, Piano – E. Freeman)
Princess Dreaming 2:57
(Bass – B. Phillips, Voice – Tasmin Smyth)
5 & 20 Schoolgirls 4:30
Cos You Got Green Hair 5:06
Credits:
Art & Liner Notes – Daevid Allen
Drums, Tabla – Rachid Houri
Flute, Saxophone – Didier Malherbe
Voice, Guitar, Bass Guitar – Daevid Allen
Voices, Space Whisper – Gilly Smyth
In the mailbox today: 2 Grateful Dead items. A jigsaw puzzle of the AoxomoxoA cover and the 7″ single ‘One More Saturdaynight/Bertha’. Bought on the dutch eBay called Marktplaats.
The seller also included a photo of two heroes of mine: Paul Kantner and David Freiberg (live, 2012, NL). Thanks Hans.
The complete concert can be found at the Internet Archive.
Jefferson Starship
Live at De Lakei, Helmond (NL) on 2012-10-26
1.Somebody To Love
2.Sunrise–>Have You Seen The Saucers?
3.Let’s Get Together
4.Wooden Ships
5.Fresh Air
6.Miracles
7.Crown Of Creation
8.Count On Me
9.Lawman
10.Ballad Of You & Me & Pooneil
11.White Rabbit
12.Volunteers
And now it’s time for the listening party. Here’s the video of unpacking the album Roswell UFO Festival Vol. 2
A beautiful song from a classic UK band: Traffic. It reminds me a lot of the Grateful Dead jam music. This video is from a reformed TRAFFIC (1994), unfortunately without Chris Wood. The late great Jim Capaldi wears a beautiful Grateful Dead T-shirt and Steve Winwood is in top-form.
2020, such a strange year. Halfway september and it’s tropical warm. In the summer we had the longest tropical period too but people had to stay mostly indoors because of mrs. Co Rona. And soon the leaves will slowly turn red and the days will be a lot shorter. Autumn is almost here…
Jefferson Starship – Roswell UFO Festival 2009, Tales from the mothership
And now the story continues… I recently bought the Jefferson Starship album – Roswell UFO Festival 2009, subtitled Tales from the mothership volume 2.
2016 UK limited edition 16-track double LP issued exclusively for Record Store Day pressed on Black & white Vinyl
It was a cheap buy, €13,- for a double album with coloured vinyl in a limited edition version. Side 0ne has most songs of the side 2 of the original 1970 release. I’m very interested in the ‘Dark Star’ and ‘Your Mind has left your body’ versions, originally Grateful Dead songs. also two covers of a Pink Floyd and a David Bowie song, and some Jefferson Airplane classic songs makes this album an interesting buy.
Recorded live July 3, 2009. This album corresponds to disc three of the 4CD set with similar name that was released in 2010 and contains the entire (electric) set two of the show.
Median price: €10.59 (on Discogs, sept. 2020).
OK, that’s all for the Volume 2 release. But wouldn’t it be nice to get a copy of Volume 1 also…?
So a week later a parcel was delivered with Volume 1. Same cheap price, Lim. Edition in coloured vinyl too. Disc 1 is black, Disc 2 is white. Now the trilogy is complete. This album corresponds to disc two of the 4CD set with similar name that was released in 2010 and contains the entire (acoustic) set one of the show. It also has two Grateful Dead songs played by former Grateful Dead pianist Tom Constanten: Mountains of the Moon and Me and My Uncle. Plus a great version of ‘Wooden Ships’.
From the original line-up only paul Kantner and David Freiberg are present again.
Median price for this album is € 11,20 at Discogs at the time of writing (2020)
The CD version has also CD1 that contains recordings taken from the rehearsals and CD4 is from the soundcheck (Three versions of Space Oddity there). The vinyl Volume One and Two is the actual live concert.
Text from the press release:
“Roswell UFO Parade & Festival Hosts Jefferson Starship Sci-Fi Extravaganza” read the headlines for the annual July 3rd event that took place in Roswell, New Mexico in 2009. Jefferson Airplane founder Paul Kantner and his legendary band Jefferson Starship and special guests, which included original Grateful Dead keyboardist Tom Constanten, performed a one-of-a-kind sci-fi concert at Pearson Auditorium in Roswell in honor of the town’s famed annual parade. The group was also bestowed the honor of being the parade’s ‘Grand Martians’ that year and rode atop a special float especially built for them. The entire concert was filmed and recorded,
a special programme of science fiction themed compositions and select recordings were performed, some for the first time ever! Now, much to the excitement of Jefferson Starship fans across the globe
In 1991 the late great rock impresario Bill Graham signed on to produce Blows from a ‘scripted stage play concept’ co-written bu Paul Kantner and his new manager Michael Gaiman, a lifelong fan. Sadly, Bill was killed in a helicopter crash and the idea was shelved until Sony Pictures pitched an ‘option’ for a Blows motion picture in 1996.
Along with Paul Kantner and David Freiberg, Jefferson Starship also features lead singer Cathy Richardson (who played Janis Joplin on Broadway in Love, Janis) and longtime band members Slick Aguilar, Chris Smith and Donny Baldwin. In addition to Grateful Dead’s Tom Constanten, special guests include Pete Sears (the band’s former bass & keyboard player on all their hits), Barry Sless (guitar & pedal steel with Phil Lesh & Friends), former lead vocalist Darby Gould and legendary folk artist Jack Taylor, one of Paul Kantner’s early musical influences.
Housed in a sealed & stickered gatefold picture sleeve LETV420LP).
Legend has it that on July 3, 1947, a mysterious object crashed on a ranch in the New Mexico desert, about 30 miles north of Roswell. The Roswell Army Air Field at first issued a press release claiming to have recovered a “flying disk,” with the Roswell Daily Record running a famous front page story reporting this the next day. But the RAAF then retracted the statement and said the object was merely a crashed weather balloon Roswell, we learn, was also home to Uncle Sam’s 509th Bomb Group, the first and only atomic strike force in the world at the time. It therefore makes perfect sense that extraterrestrial visitors trying to size up humanity might take a keen interest in the area..
American rock magazine ‘Rolling Stone’ has covered the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia many times. In the late-sixties and early-seventies the reviews and critics were mostly very positive.
Mid-seventies to the end of the eighties this changed in mostly negative articles for as much as i can remember. Here’s a link to a post with record reviews from these days I collected and posted long time ago (1992). So old it’s a little out of date…
The wave changed again and now the Dead is considered in most magazines and books as the ultimate american rock band.
The article that featured this august in the Rolling Stone magazine is about the fifty most beautiful Jerry Garcia songs. It’s a very nice read and listening experience and reading the Stella Blue notes, it explains now why it took me four to five years before this dutch deadhead learned to love these two Robert Hunter/Jerry Garcia songs featured here.
It took Jerry Garcia too a few hard years with many up’s and down’s before he could understand, sing and play these songs like he did here. (see the liner notes below of the Stella Blue Song).
In the article Rolling Stone puts “Uncle John’s Band’ at first place and ‘Dark Star second place. No, I will not argue about the list order, i’m just very happy that with all these beautiful songs ‘Stella Blue’ and ‘China Doll’ have found their place in this list.
Enjoy the music ! (warning: give it some time, these songs must really grow on you. It took me four years ha ha).
From the Rolling Stone article:
By David Browne & Corinne Cummings & Kory Grow & Will Hermes&David Marchese & Bob Sheffield & Douglas Wolk
Hunter originally titled this ballad “The Suicide Song” following a friend’s attempt at taking his own life. But even after it was renamed “China Doll,” Garcia still felt haunted. Accompanied by a harpsichord, Garcia’s guitar creeps in just behind the beat, and he sings as if he’s sighing from another realm. The result is one of his most gripping vocal performances. As Hunter said, “The song is eerie and very, very beautiful the way Jerry handles it.” A later, live acoustic version on Reckoning showed how Garcia could enhance the dark power of “China Doll” by stripping it down even further.
When Garcia first recorded this come-down ballad, he admitted that it was his magisterial melody that appealed to him. “I was so proud of it as a composer — ‘Hey, this is a slick song!’” he recalled. Only later in life, after his own ups and downs, did Garcia fully connect with Hunter’s lyrics about “broken dreams and vanished years,” written in New York City’s Chelsea Hotel in 1970. “That’s a good example of a song I sang before I understood it,” Garcia said. “It has a sort of brittle pathos in it that I didn’t get until I’d been singing it for a while.” Live, the Dead sometimes played so slowly it seemed to stop time.
A good Facebook friend (thanks CJ) got me listening to this song. At first hearing i was surprised by the intro (2 min.), by the outro, and by the pleasant bass-guitar line. I gave a ‘thumbs-up’. But the lyrics kept playing in my head and i had to listen again, again, and again. This is such an intriguing song. It has a pleasant melody but the words are haunting.
“All my happiness is gone It’s all gone somewhere beyond All my happiness is gone”.
I changed my Facebook ‘thumbs-up’ to a ‘Wonderful’ because the song has so much layers. It’s disturbing, pleasant, sad, melancholy, it’s a suicide note. Each note aches with sorrow and resolve and i kept listening over and over.
Reading the YouTube comments i found out that Dave Berman ended his life shortly after finishing this album. This beautiful album ‘Purple Mountains’ was released on July 12, 2019. Nearly five weeks after the album’s release the poet, just 52 years, was found dead at his appartment.
The words and music will always be there!
Friends are warmer than gold when you’re old
And keeping them is harder than you might suppose
Lately, I tend to make strangers wherever I go
Some of them were once people I was happy to know
Mounting mileage on the dash
Double darkness falling fast
I keep stressing, pressing on
Way deep down at some substratum
Feels like something really wrong has happened
And I confess I’m barely hanging on
All my happiness is gone
All my happiness is gone
It’s all gone somewhere beyond
All my happiness is gone
Ten thousand afternoons ago
All my happiness just overflowed
That was life at first and goal to go
Me and you, and us and them
And all those people way back when
All our hardships were just yardsticks then, you know
You know
It’s not the purple hills
It’s not the silver lakes
It’s not the snowcloud shadowed interstates
It’s not the icy bike chain rain of Portland, Oregon
Where nothing’s wrong and no one’s asking
But the fear’s so strong it leaves you gasping
No way to last out here like this for long
‘Cause everywhere I go, I know
Everywhere I go,
I know All my happiness is gone
All my happiness is gone
It’s all gone somewhere beyond
All my happiness is gone
As a ‘natural born dead head’ i’ve been collecting their albums ever since i’ve bought my first Grateful Dead album “Live/Dead” in the early seventies. Not very fanatic but i’ve managed to get a complete collection untill the days the Dick Pick’s series were released. Ffom then on I lost track and purchased a new album every now and then… This weekend i’ve made two low-fi videoclips of the Grateful Dead bootlegs in my collection. Nothing fancy, just some good ol’ grateful dead music!
and here a video of the small and shiny CD’s
Long time ago, in an era that every town had it’s own recordstore and none of them were alike, i’ve found a double album of Airto in the sales bins of the recordstore “Elpee” in Arnhem. I’ve bought it because it was really cheap and I had some other albums in “The Essential…” series, not knowing what beautiful music this was. Since then this music finds itself regularly on my turntable.
Airto does the percussion, famous Ron Carter on the bass, Flora Purim off-course on vocals, but the magical notes are coming this time especially from Hermeto en Sivuca. Impressive!
