Chet Atkins – More Of That Guitar Country (1965)

Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), known as “Mr. Guitar” and “The Country Gentleman”, was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nashville sound, the country music style which expanded its appeal to adult pop music fans. He was primarily a guitarist, but he also played the mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and ukulele, and occasionally sang.

Atkins’s signature picking style was inspired by Merle Travis. Other major guitar influences were Django Reinhardt, George Barnes, Les Paul, and, later, Jerry Reed. His distinctive picking style and musicianship brought him admirers inside and outside the country scene, both in the United States and abroad. Atkins spent most of his career at RCA Victor and produced records for the Browns, Hank Snow, Porter Wagoner, Norma Jean, Dolly Parton, Dottie West, Perry Como, Floyd Cramer, Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Jerry Reed, Skeeter Davis, Waylon Jennings, Roger Whittaker, and many others.

Rolling Stone credited Atkins with inventing the “popwise ‘Nashville sound’ that rescued country music from a commercial slump” and ranked him number 21 on their list of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”. Among many other honors, Atkins received 14 Grammy Awards and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He also received nine Country Music Association awards for Instrumentalist of the Year. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum. George Harrison was also inspired by Chet Atkins; early Beatles songs such as “All My Loving” show the influence.

More of That Guitar Country is the twenty-seventh studio album by US country musician Chet Atkins. It is a follow-up to his Guitar Country release and was more successful. His rendition of “Yakety Sax” by Boots Randolph earned Atkins a hit on the country singles charts. A mix of traditional fingerpicking, country-flavored pop and traditional country, the album peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Country charts.

More of That Guitar Country and “Yakety Axe” were nominated for four 1965 Grammy awards but did not win any. (wikipedia)

The followup album to Guitar Country, More of That Guitar Country spawned a bigger hit than anything on its predecessor — or anything in Chet Atkins’ long career for that matter. That tune was “Yakety Axe” — a retitled cover of Boots Randolph’s “Yakety Sax,” which itself was inspired by the Coasters’ “Yakety Yak” — a rapid-fire, barnyard-flavored tune that rose to number four on the country singles charts of 1965. As it happens, this was a deceptively flamboyant leadoff track for one of Atkins’ least-cluttered, mostly reined-in, and most musical albums of the mid-’60s, searching for good material wherever he can find it, even outside the cloistered world of Nashville. With a subdued intro as a temporary decoy, “Old Joe Clark” gets exactly the kind of fingerpicking, fingerbusting performance fans expect from this guitarist. The Johnny Cash hit “Understand Your Man” gets a neat, genteel, two-beat rendition that reminds one of its close resemblance to Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” — and Dylan himself is represented by an early (for Nashville) countrified cover of “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Jerry Smith (piano) and Charlie McCoy (harmonica) are among the session regulars who keep the Nashville music machine running smoothly behind Atkins. (by Richard S. Ginell)

Personnel:
Chet Atkins (guitar)
Charlie McCoy (harmonica)
Jerry Smith (piano)

An EP from France:

Tracklist:
01. Yakety Axe (Randolph/Rich) 2.07
02. Back Up And Push (Traditional) 2.15
03. Cloudy And Cool (Loudermilk) 2.21
04. Alone And Forsaken (Williams) 2.43
05. Old Joe Clark (Traditional) 2.10
06. Catch The Wind (Leitch) 2.05
07. How’s The World Treating You (Atkins/Bryant) 2.42
08. Understand Your Man (Cash) 2.04
09. Letter Edged in Black (Traditional) 2.08
10. My Town (Atkins) 2.23
11. Blowin’ In The Wind (Dylan) 2.26
12. The Last Letter (Griffin) 2.25
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13. Travelin´ (Miller) 2.20

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A single from Germany:

More from Chet Atkins:

The official website:

Roger Moore – Where Does Love Go + Tomorrow After Tomorrow (1965)

Some actors should not make records:

Sir Roger George Moore KBE (14 October 1927 – 23 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions film series, playing the character in seven feature films between 1973 and 1985. Moore’s seven appearances as Bond, from Live and Let Die to A View to a Kill, are the most of any actor in the Eon-produced entries.

On television, Moore played the lead role of Simon Templar, the title character in the British mystery thriller series The Saint (1962–1969). He also had roles in American series, including Beau Maverick on the Western Maverick (1960–1961), in which he replaced James Garner as the lead, and a co-lead, with Tony Curtis, in the action-comedy The Persuaders! (1971–1972).

Continuing to act on screen in the decades after his retirement from the Bond franchise, Moore’s final appearance was in a pilot for a new Saint series that became a 2017 television film.

Moore was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1991 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 for services to charity. In 2007, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film industry. He was made a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2008. (wikipedia)

In 1965, during his tenure in The Saint, Roger Moore and his later to be wife Luisa Mattioli released a single on CBS Records, Where Does Love Go c/w Tomorrow After Tomorrow.

Side A was a song which the Addrisi Brothers wrote and Charles Boyer made famous, mostly because his version’s biggest fan was Elvis Presley; and it was a mellow number that in regards to the singing it counts mostly as a spoken word tune.

Side B was an original composition written by Moore and Mattioli in the same vein as the other track.

Roger Moore was not celebrated for his singing abilities, and sensibly there did not follow his musical aspirations very closely. (destroyexist.com)

Some actors should not make records … listen to this bizarre single and you´ll know what I mean …

Personnel:
Roger Moore (“vocals”)
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Less Reed Orchestra

Alternate frontcover from Norway:

Tracklist:
01. Where Does Love Go (Don Addrisi/Dick Addrisi) 2.55
02. Tomorrow After Tomorrow (R.Moore/L,Moore) 2.13

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Georgie Fame – Sweet Things (+ bonus tracks) (1966)

Georgie Fame (born Clive Powell; 26 June 1943) is an English R&B and jazz musician. Fame, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still performing, often working with contemporaries such as Alan Price, Van Morrison and Bill Wyman. Fame is the only British music act to have achieved three number one hits with his only Top 10 chart entries: “Yeh, Yeh” in 1964, “Get Away”, in 1966 and “The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde” in 1967.

Powell was born at 1 Cotton Street, Leigh, Lancashire, England. He took piano lessons from the age of seven and on leaving Leigh Central County Secondary School at 15 he worked for a brief period in a cotton weaving mill and played piano for a band called the Dominoes in the evenings. After taking part in a singing contest at the Butlins Holiday Camp in Pwllheli, North Wales, he was offered a job there by the band leader, early British rock and roll star Rory Blackwell.

At sixteen years of age, Powell went to London and, on the recommendation of Lionel Bart, entered into a management agreement with Larry Parnes, who had given new stage names to artists Marty Wilde and Billy Fury. Fame later recalled that Parnes had given him an ultimatum over his forced change of name: “It was very much against my will but he said, ‘If you don’t use my name, I won’t use you in the show'”.

Over the following year Fame toured the UK playing beside Wilde, Joe Brown, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and others. Fame played piano for Billy Fury in his backing band, the Blue Flames. When the backing band got the sack at the end of 1961, it was re-billed as “Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames” and went on to enjoy great success with a repertoire largely of rhythm and blues numbers.

Georgie Fame and Rick Brown performing at The Grand Gala du Disque, Amsterdam on Saturday, 2 October 1966:

Fame was influenced by jazz, blues, and the musicians Mose Allison and Willie Mabon. He was one of the first white musicians to be influenced by ska after hearing it in cafés in Jamaica and Ladbroke Grove in England. He recalled The Flamingo Club was “full of American GIs who came in from their bases for the weekend” who played for him the song “Green Onions” by Booker T. & the M.G.’s. “I had been playing piano up to that point but I bought a Hammond organ the next day.”

In 1963, the band recorded its debut album, Rhythm and Blues at the Flamingo.[5] Produced by Ian Samwell and engineered by Glyn Johns,[10] the album was released in place of a planned single by EMI Columbia. It failed to reach the chart, but the October 1964 follow-up, Fame at Last, reached No. 15 on the UK Albums Chart.

Ronan O’Rahilly failed to get Fame’s first record played by the BBC. After it was rejected by Radio Luxembourg, O’Rahilly announced he would start his own radio station to promote the record. The station became the offshore pirate radio station Radio Caroline.

Fame enjoyed continual chart success, with three number one hits in the UK Singles Chart. His version of “Yeh, Yeh”, released on 14 January 1965, spent two weeks at No. 1 on the UK singles chart. “In the Meantime” charted in both UK and US. Fame made his US television debut that same year on Hullabaloo. His single “Get Away”, released on 21 July 1966, spent one week at No. 1 on the UK chart and 11 weeks on the chart. The song was written as a jingle for a petrol commercial. His version of the Bobby Hebb song “Sunny” made No. 13 in the UK charts in September 1966. His greatest chart success was in 1967 when “The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde” became a number one hit in the UK, and No. 7 in the US. “Yeh, Yeh” and “The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde” sold over one million copies and were awarded gold discs.

Fame continued playing into the 1970s, having a hit with “Rosetta” with his friend Alan Price in 1971, and they worked together extensively.[5] In 1974, he reunited the Blue Flames and began to sing with European orchestras and big bands. He wrote jingles for radio and TV commercials and composed for the films Entertaining Mr Sloane (1970) and The Alf Garnett Saga (1972).

The artist released two singles produced by Stock Aitken Waterman in 1986, a cover of Richie Cole’s “New York Afternoon”, (credited as Mondo Kané featuring Dee Lewis, Coral Gordon and Georgie Fame) and a cover of a Gilberto Gil track, “Samba”, under his own name, for which he wrote the English-language lyrics.

He became a member of Van Morrison’s band, as well as his musical producer. He played keyboards and sang harmony vocals on “In the Days Before Rock ‘n’ Roll” from the album Enlightenment while recording and touring as a solo act. He played organ on Van Morrison’s albums between 1989 and 1997 and starred at Terry Dillon’s 60th-birthday party on 10 May 2008. Morrison refers to Fame in the line “I don’t run into Mr. Clive” in his song “Don’t Go to Nightclubs Anymore” on the 2008 Keep It Simple album. Fame appeared as a guest on Morrison’s television concert presented by BBC Four on 25 and 27 April 2008.

Fame was a founding member of Bill Wyman’s band Rhythm Kings. He also worked with Count Basie, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Joan Armatrading, and the Verve.

Fame has played residences at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club.[5] He played organ on Starclub’s album. He was the headline act on the Sunday night at the Jazz World stage at the 2009 Glastonbury Festival after performing at the Midsummer Music at Spencers festival in Essex.

On 18 April 2010, Fame and his sons Tristan Powell (guitar) and James Powell (drums) performed at the Live Room at Twickenham Stadium[21] for the tenth birthday celebrations of The Eel Pie Club. Part of the proceeds from the concert benefitted the Otakar Kraus Music Trust, which provides music and voice therapy for children and young people with physical and mental difficulties. The trio performed later that year at the Towersey Festival.

In July 2014, Fame played at the village hall in Goring-on-Thames[24] and then at the Cornbury Festival in Oxfordshire.

In 1972, Fame married Nicolette (née Harrison), Marchioness of Londonderry, the former wife of the 9th Marquess. Lady Londonderry had given birth to one of Fame’s children during her marriage to the marquess; the child, Tristan, bore the courtesy title Viscount Castlereagh and was believed to be heir to the marquisate. When tests determined the child was Fame’s, the Londonderrys divorced. The couple had another son, James, during their marriage.

Nicolette Powell died on 13 August 1993, after jumping off the Clifton Suspension Bridge. In an interview before her death, Fame said that they had stayed happily married because of her “charm, beauty, forbearance and understanding”.[29]

Fame supports the Countryside Alliance and has played concerts to raise funds for the organisation. (wikipedia)

Sweet Things is the 1966 third album with the Blue Flames by Georgie Fame which reached No.6 in the album Top Ten in the UK. Following this album his band The Blue Flames was replaced with The Tornados. (wikipedia)

Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames’ third album very much follows in the footsteps of its predecessors, a punchy R&B stomper that could (even should) have been recorded live, so high is the energy, and so abandoned the backing of the Blue Flames. This is especially apparent on side two of the original vinyl, as the band all-but replicate the closing run of a hot and sweaty club gig, pounding through an electrifyingly note-perfect “My Girl,” a rattling “The Whole World’s Shaking” and a truly incredible version of “The In Crowd,” all honking horns and smooth-flowing Hammond. Don Covay’s “See Saw” is another jewel, but for sheer audacity, the highlight has to be calypso king Lord Kitchener’s gleefully risqué “Dr Kitch,” a percussively swaying romp that only grows more delightful as it becomes apparent that Fame himself is having trouble delivering the lyric straight-faced — the story of a doctor attempting to administer an injection to a nervous young lady, after all, is so rife with double meaning that it is virtually a sex act in its own right.

Not quite up to the standard of the group’s debut (which, of course, was recorded live), Sweet Thing is nevertheless one of the finest British R&B albums of the mid-’60s, and one of the last to illustrate just how many possibilities were still open to the U.K. scene at that time. The journey from soft soul to rude calypso, via every musical shade in between, was not one that many performers were willing to take, after all. Fame and co, on the other hand, make the journey in record time.by Dave Thompson)

And yes … on drums: Mr. Mitch Mitchell !

Personnel:
Neemoi “Speedy” Acquaye (percussion)
Cliff Barton (bass)
Peter Coe (saxophone)
Georgie Fame (organ, vocals)
Colin Green (guitar)
Glenn Hughes (saxophone)
John “Mitch” Mitchell (drums)
Eddie “Tan Tan” Thornton (trumpet)

Tracklist:
01. Sweet Thing (Stevenson) 2.33
02. See Saw (Covay) 2.43
03. Ride Your Pony (Neville) 2.39
04. Funny How Time Slips Away (Nelson) 3.15
05. Sitting In The Park (Stewart) 3.22
06. Dr. Kitch (Blackwell/Kitchener) 3.56
07. My Girl (White/Robinson) 2.56
08. Music Talk (Paul/Wonder/Hull) 3.18
09. The In Crowd (Page) 2.54
10. The World Is Round (Thomas) 2.37
11. The Whole World’s Shaking (Cooke) 3.09
12. Last Night (Laine) 5.05
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13. In The Meantime (Burch) 2.35
14. Telegram (Burch) 2.37
15. No No (The River) (from the EP “Fats For  Fame, 1965) (Bartholomew) 1.59
16. Blue Monday (from the EP “Fats For  Fame, 1965)  (Kenner/Bartholomew/Domino) 2.14
17. So Long (from the EP “Fats For  Fame, 1965) (Bartholomew/Domino) 1.48
18. Sick And Tired (from the EP “Fats For  Fame, 1965) (Kenner/Bartholomew) 2.18
19. Like We Used To Be (Single A-Side, 1965) (Powell) 2.16
20. It Ain’t Right (Single B-Side, 1965) (Powell) 3.04
21. Something (Single A-Side, 1965) (Mayall) 3.10
21. Outrage (Single B-Side, 1965) (Cropper/Jackson, Jr./Steinberg/Allen Jr.) 3.29

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More from Georgie Fame:

The official website (now deleted):

Wanda de Sah & The Sergio Mendes Trio – Brasil `65 (1965)

Wanda Maria Ferreira de Sá (born July 1, 1944) (also Wanda de Sah) is a Brazilian bossa nova singer and guitarist, active from 1964 to the present day.

Her first guitar teacher, when she was 13, was Roberto Menescal. Later, she worked with Sérgio Mendes in his group Brasil ’65’ and also with Marcos Valle and Kátya Chamma. Francisco Tenório Júnior and Ugo Marotta played on her debut album Vagamente in 1965.

She was married to songwriter Edu Lobo from 1969 until 1982.

In 2011, she made her first appearance in the United States since 1999, playing with Marcos Valle at Birdland in New York City.[3] The Wall Street Journal described her as “legendary”. National Public Radio called her “one of Brazil’s best-kept musical secrets”. (wikipedia)

When at 13 she enrolled at Roberto Menescal’s guitar academy, Wanda Sá (also known as Wanda de Sah), a successful bossa nova artist, was spotted by Ronaldo Bôscoli and invited to appear on the programs Dois no Balanço (TV Excelsior) and O Fino da Bossa (TV Record). Starting her professional career at 19 with Wanda Vagamente (1964), one of the earliest arranging assignments by Eumir Deodato, Sá launched “Inútil Paisagem” (Tom Jobim/Aloysio de Oliveira) and the earliest compositions by Edú Lobo, Francis Hime, and Marcos Valle.

The album, launched at the Fino da Bossa show (at the Paramount Theater in São Paulo), was a success (having been reissued in Japan in the decade of the 2000s) and had a hit with “Vagamente” (Roberto Menescal/Ronaldo Bôscoli). By the end of the same year, she joined Sérgio Mendes’ Brasil ’65 (with Rosinha de Valença and Jorge Ben Jor), realizing successful shows in Brazil and the U.S., where Brasil ’65 was recorded (with the participation of Bud Shank and the Sérgio Mendes Trio).

She also recorded in the U.S. the solo Softly and performed both in Brazil and the U.S. with the Sérgio Mendes Trio. In 1966, she returned to Brazil where she did shows with Baden Powell, Vinícius de Moraes, Mièle, Luís Carlos Vinhas, and the Bossa 3. In 1969, Sá participated in Paul Desmond’s Hot Summer. Married to Edú Lobo from 1969 to 1982, a period in which she left the scene, Sá returned in the late ’80s, performing shows with Roberto Menescal and Mièle, recording Brasileiras in 1994 with Célia Vaz. In 2000, she recorded with Luís Carlos Vinhas, Tião Neto, and João Cortez the CD Wanda Sá & Bossa Três with bossa nova classics and new compositions. Four successful seasons at the Sabbata Tokyo turned the CD Wanda Vagamente into a hit, having reached second place on the top charts. In 2001, she participated with Roberto Menescal, Marcos Valle, and Danilo Caymmi in the Fare Festival (Pavia, Italy). (by Alvaro Neder)

In 1965, Sergio Mendes and his trio conducted their first out-of-Brazil experiment: They recorded in L.A. for the first time in what proved to be their first major move into the U.S. market and their embrace of the new bossa nova sound. Accompanying the Mendes band were then-great vocalist Wanda de Sah and guitarist Rosinha de Valenca. This is deeply swinging bossa; it is crisp and pops out at the listener in every conceivable way. It features exotic and pioneering rhythmic work, smooth accessibility, and sophisticated melodies, many of which were written by the hottest talents in Brazil, such as Marcos Valle (“Samba de Verão” [aka “So Nice”]), Baden Powell and Vinícius de Moraes (“Berimbau”), João Donato (“Muito a Vontade”), Edú Lobo (“Reza”), and of course Antonio Carlos Jobim (“One Note Samba” and “She’s a Carioca”).

Also adding to the jazzed-out nature of the new bossa flavor was Bud Shank blowing alto on “So Nice” and other cuts, which had its lyric — -as did “One Note Samba” and a few others — translated into English. But the appeal of Shank’s appeal with this band cannot be overrated. Shank took the shimmering mist that Getz contributed to bossa nova and punched it up and gave it an edge and some raw emotion. This stands with Mendes’ best work from Brazil and is truly one of his American highlights. (by Thom Jurek)

Personnel:
Wanda de Sah (vocals)
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Sergio Mendes Trio:
Chico Batera (drums)
Sérgio Mendes (piano)
Sebastião Neto (bass)
+
Bud Shank (saxophone, flute)
Rosinha De Valenca (guitar)

Tracklist:
01. So Nice (Samba De Verão) (M.Valle/S.Valle) 2.11
02. Favela (Somewhere In The Hills) (Jobim/de Moraes) 2.56
03. Berimbau (Powell/de Moraes) 3.19
04. Tristeza Em Min (Guimaraes/Tavares) 2.00
05. Aquarius (Donato/Mello) 2.24
06. One Note Samba (Samba De Uma Nota So) (Jobim/Mendonca) 2.22
07. She’s Carioca (Jobim/Gilberto/de Moraes) 3.25
08. Muito A Vontade (Donato) 2.59
09. Let Me (Deixa) (Powell/Gimbel) 2.50
10. Consolação (Powell/de Moraes) 3.11
11. Reza (Lobo/Guerra) 3.04

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More from Sergio Mendes:

Tom Lehrer – That Was The Year That Was (1965)

Thomas Andrew Lehrer (born April 9, 1928) is a retired American musician, singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician, having lectured on mathematics and musical theater. He is best known for the pithy and humorous songs that he recorded in the 1950s and 1960s.

His songs often parodied popular musical forms, though he usually created original melodies when doing so.

A notable exception is “The Elements”, in which he set the names of the chemical elements to the tune of the “Major-General’s Song” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance.

Lehrer’s early musical work typically dealt with non-topical subject matter and was noted for its black humor in songs such as “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”.

In the 1960s, he produced a number of songs that dealt with social and political issues of the day, particularly when he wrote for the U.S. version of the television show That Was the Week That Was.

Tom Lehrer’s work always had a biting, satirical edge to it, but never was this more obvious than on this album, a collection of songs regarding events of the year 1965. Very little was sacred from Lehrer’s sharp wit, from racism to the Catholic Church, and, while much of his subject matter has become outdated, his shrewd comic talents are beyond question. 1965 was obviously a good year for political satire: the threat of nuclear war was present and very real, the Catholic Church launched Vatican 2 in an effort to “modernize” the church, free speech was under threat, and the tide was beginning to turn against institutionalized racism (despite Malcolm X being assassinated that year). Lehrer’s musicianship is good, but not brilliant, and his singing style is not exceptional, but the content of his songs is what makes him such a great comedian. Lyrically, he was superb. Where his contemporaries Flanders and Swann relied on clever wordplay, Lehrer’s caustic wit was his strength.

The nuclear threat was the major theme here, an example being the tale of nuclear proliferation, “Who’s Next?,” which, when mentioning Israel’s need for nuclear weapons, states “The Lord’s our shepherd, says the Psalm/But just in case — we’re going to get a bomb.” “So Long Mom (A Song for World War 3)” came about because, as Lehrer says in his introduction, “if any songs are going to come out of World War 3, we’d better start writing them now.” “Wernher von Braun” questions the United State’s dubious moral decision to grant the Nazi scientist von Braun asylum if he worked for the U.S. Space Program, while “Send the Marines” highlights unwritten U.S. foreign policy, specifically on invading another country: “They’ve got to be protected/All their rights respected/Until somebody we like can be elected.”Other themes explored are those of racism (“National Brotherhood Week”), freedom of speech (“Smut”), the growing number of protest songs (“Folk Song Army”) ,and new teaching methods (“New Math”). More controversially, the Catholic Church’s attempt at modernization is mercilessly lampooned in the “Vatican Rag.”

This is one of Tom Lehrer’s finest works, and it is a pleasure to hear him actually sing these songs himself. While very much a product of the ’60s, much of Lehrer’s comedy is still relevant. This album gives a fascinating insight into the politics of the 1960s United States and also shows one of the finest comedic talents of that decade at his absolute best. (by Jonathan Lewis)

Recorded live at the Hungry Nightclub in San Francisco, CA, over five nights in July, 1965

Personnel:
Tom Lehrer (vocals, piano)

Tracklist:
01. National Brotherhood Week 2.35
02. MLF Lullaby 2.25
03. George Murphy 2.08
04. The Folk Song Army 2.12
05. Smut 3.15
06. Send The Marines 1.46
07. Pollution 2.16
08. So Long, Mom (A Song For World War III) 2.23
09. Whatever Became Of Hubert? 2.13
10. New Math 4.28
11. Alma 5.27
12. Who’s Next? 2.00
13. Wernher von Braun 1.47
14. The Vatican Rag 2.14

All songs written by Tom Lehrer

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More from Tom Lehrer:

Jimmy Page – She Just Satisfies + Keep Moving (1965)

Page was born to James Patrick Page and Patricia Elizabeth Gaffikin in the west London suburb of Heston on 9 January 1944. His father was a personnel manager at a plastic-coatings plant and his mother, who was of Irish descent, was a doctor’s secretary. In 1952, they moved to Feltham and then to Miles Road, Epsom in Surrey. Page was educated from the age of eight at Epsom County Pound Lane Primary School, and when he was eleven he went to Ewell County Secondary School in West Ewell. He came across his first guitar, a Spanish guitar, in the Miles Road house: “I don’t know whether [the guitar] was left behind by the people [in the house] before [us], or whether it was a friend of the family’s—nobody seemed to know why it was there.” First playing the instrument when aged 12, he took a few lessons in nearby Kingston, but was largely self-taught:

When I grew up there weren’t many other guitarists … There was one other guitarist in my school who actually showed me the first chords that I learned and I went on from there. I was bored so I taught myself the guitar from listening to records. So obviously it was a very personal thing.

This “other guitarist” was a boy called Rod Wyatt, a few years his senior, and together with another boy, Pete Calvert, they would practise at Page’s house; Page would devote six or seven hours on some days to practising and would always take his guitar with him to secondary school, only to have it confiscated and returned to him after class. Among Page’s early influences were rockabilly guitarists Scotty Moore and James Burton, who both played on recordings made by Elvis Presley. Presley’s song “Baby Let’s Play House” is cited by Page as being his inspiration to take up the guitar, and he would reprise Moore’s playing on the song in the live version of “Whole Lotta Love” on The Song Remains the Same. He appeared on BBC1 in 1957 with a Höfner President acoustic, which he’d bought from money saved up from his milk round in the summer holidays and which had a pickup so it could be amplified, but his first solid-bodied electric guitar was a second-hand 1959 Futurama Grazioso, later replaced by a Fender Telecaster, a model he had seen Buddy Holly playing on the TV and a real-life example of which he’d played at an electronics exhibition at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London.

Page’s musical tastes included skiffle (a popular English music genre of the time) and acoustic folk playing, and the blues sounds of Elmore James, B.B. King, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Freddie King, and Hubert Sumlin. “Basically, that was the start: a mixture between rock and blues.”

At the age of 13, Page appeared on Huw Wheldon’s All Your Own talent quest programme in a skiffle quartet, one performance of which aired on BBC1 in 1957. The group played “Mama Don’t Want to Skiffle Anymore” and another American-flavoured song, “In Them Ol’ Cottonfields Back Home”. When asked by Wheldon what he wanted to do after schooling, Page said, “I want to do biological research [to find a cure for] cancer, if it isn’t discovered by then.”

In an interview with Guitar Player magazine, Page stated that “there was a lot of busking in the early days, but as they say, I had to come to grips with it and it was a good schooling.” When he was fourteen, and billed as James Page, he played in a group called Malcolm Austin and Whirlwinds, alongside Tony Busson on bass, Stuart Cockett on rhythm and a drummer called Tom, knocking out Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis numbers. This band was short-lived, as Page soon found a drummer for a band he’d previously been playing in with Rod Wyatt, David Williams and Pete Calvert, and came up with a name for them: The Paramounts.[28] The Paramounts played gigs in Epsom, once supporting a group who would later become Johnny Kidd & the Pirates.

Although interviewed for a job as a laboratory assistant, he ultimately chose to leave secondary school in West Ewell to pursue music, doing so at the age of fifteen – the earliest age permitted at the time – having gained four GCE O levels and on the back of a major row with the school Deputy Head Miss Nicholson about his musical ambitions, about which she was wholly scathing.

Page had difficulty finding other musicians with whom he could play on a regular basis. “It wasn’t as though there was an abundance. I used to play in many groups … anyone who could get a gig together, really.” Following stints backing recitals by Beat poet Royston Ellis at the Mermaid Theatre between 1960 and 1961, and singer Red E. Lewis, who’d seen him playing with the Paramounts at the Contemporary club in Epsom and told his manager Chris Tidmarsh to ask Page to join his backing band, the Redcaps, after the departure of guitarist Bobby Oats, Page was asked by singer Neil Christian to join his band, the Crusaders. Christian had seen a fifteen-year-old Page playing in a local hall, and the guitarist toured with Christian for approximately two years and later played on several of his records, including the 1962 single, “The Road to Love.”

During his stint with Christian, Page fell seriously ill with infectious mononucleosis (i.e. glandular fever) and could not continue touring. While recovering, he decided to put his musical career on hold and concentrate on his other love, painting, and enrolled at Sutton Art College in Surrey. As he explained in 1975:

[I was] travelling around all the time in a bus. I did that for two years after I left school, to the point where I was starting to get really good bread. But I was getting ill. So I went back to art college. And that was a total change in direction. That’s why I say it’s possible to do. As dedicated as I was to playing the guitar, I knew doing it that way was doing me in forever. Every two months I had glandular fever. So for the next 18 months I was living on ten dollars a week and getting my strength up. But I was still playing.

While still a student, Page often performed on stage at the Marquee Club with bands such as Cyril Davies’ All Stars, Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, and fellow guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. He was spotted one night by John Gibb of Brian Howard & the Silhouettes, who asked him to help record some singles for Columbia Graphophone Company, including “The Worrying Kind”. Mike Leander of Decca Records first offered Page regular studio work. His first session for the label was the recording “Diamonds” by Jet Harris and Tony Meehan, which went to Number 1 on the singles chart in early 1963.

After brief stints with Carter-Lewis and the Southerners, Mike Hurst and the Method and Mickey Finn and the Blue Men, Page committed himself to full-time session work. As a session guitarist, he was known as ‘Lil’ Jim Pea’ to prevent confusion with the other noted English session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan. Page was mainly called into sessions as “insurance” in instances when a replacement or second guitarist was required by the recording artist. “It was usually myself and a drummer”, he explained, “though they never mention the drummer these days, just me … Anyone needing a guitarist either went to Big Jim [Sullivan] or myself.”[23] He stated that “In the initial stages they just said, play what you want, cos at that time I couldn’t read music or anything.”

producer Shel Talmy. As a result, he secured session work on songs for the Who and the Kinks.[35] Page is credited with playing acoustic twelve-string guitar on two tracks on the Kinks’ debut album, “I’m a Lover Not a Fighter” and “I’ve Been Driving on Bald Mountain”,[36] and possibly on the B-side “I Gotta Move”.[37] He played rhythm guitar on the sessions for the Who’s first single “I Can’t Explain”[33] (although Pete Townshend was reluctant to allow Page’s contribution on the final recording; Page also played lead guitar on the B-side, “Bald Headed Woman”).[38] Page’s studio gigs in 1964 and 1965 included Marianne Faithfull’s “As Tears Go By”, Jonathan King’s “Everyone’s Gone to the Moon”, the Nashville Teens’ “Tobacco Road”, the Rolling Stones’ “Heart of Stone”, Van Morrison & Them’s “Baby, Please Don’t Go”, “Mystic Eyes”, and “Here Comes the Night”, Dave Berry’s “The Crying Game” and “My Baby Left Me”, Brenda Lee’s “Is It True”, Shirley Bassey’s “Goldfinger”, and Petula Clark’s “Downtown”. (wikipedia)

When we think of Jimmy Page’s solo career, we tend to remember his 1988 Outrider LP first. However, Page actually got his start decades earlier, with the little-heard single “She Just Satisfies.”

Released on Feb. 26, 1965, on the Fontana label, “She Just Satisfies” (backed with “Keep Moving”) found Page producing, playing all the instruments except the drums, and – for what seems to be the first and only time – handling lead vocals.

The recordings took place toward the end of Page’s lucrative and prolific career as one of the most sought-after session guitarists on the U.K. rock scene, but before he stepped into the spotlight as a member of the Yardbirds (and later Led Zeppelin).

“My session work was invaluable. At one point I was playing at least three sessions a day, six days a week! And I rarely ever knew in advance what I was going to be playing. But I learned things even on my worst sessions – and believe me, I played on some horrendous things,” he told CBS in 2013.

Muzak,” Page added. “I decided I couldn’t live that life any more; it was getting too silly. I guess it was destiny that a week after I quit doing sessions Paul Samwell-Smith left the Yardbirds and I was able to take his place. But being a session musician was good fun in the beginning – the studio discipline was great. They’d just count the song off and you couldn’t make any mistakes.”

Even if he was growing disenchanted with the session life, Page wasn’t exactly dying to become a solo artist. It took some encouragement from his girlfriend at the time, singer-songwriter Jackie DeShannon, with whom he’d collaborated on a string of songs that included “Dream Boy” and “Don’t Turn Your Back on Me” (as well as “Keep Moving”). And while the fact that it wasn’t a hit probably made a long-term solo career a moot point anyway, Page later seemed dismissive of his efforts on the single.

“There’s nothing to be said for that record except it was very tongue-in-cheek at the time,” he later shrugged in an interview with Creem. “I played all the instruments on it except for the drums and sang on it too, which is quite, uh … unique. ‘She Just Satisfies,’ that’s what it was called. It’s better forgotten.”

These days, YouTube is a pretty fantastic tool for making sure no piece of musical history is ever forgotten, and sure enough, some enterprising fans have uploaded “She Just Satisfies” and “Keep Moving” for all of us to enjoy. Perhaps not Page’s finest musical hour, but an interesting footnote in an incredible career, and a fascinating glimpse of what was soon to come from one of the greatest guitarists in rock ‘n’ roll history. (ultimateclassicrock.com)

And co-writer Barry Mason was the award-winning songwriter who brought us Delilah – and also wrote songs for Elvis Presley, Rod Stewart and Barbra Streisand … and Jimmy Page !

Personnel:
Bobby Graham (drums)
Jimmy Page (guitar, vocals, bass, harmonica)

A re-issue from 1967:

Tracklist:
01. She Just Satisfies (Page/Mason) 2.01
02. Keep Moving (Page/Mason) 3.29

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Antonio Carlos Barbosa Lima – Concerto en Modo Frigio (1965)

Antonio Carlos Ribeiro Barbosa Lima (born December 17, 1944) is a classical and jazz guitarist from Brazil. He has spent most of his professional life as a resident in the United States, devoting much of his time as a recitalist on international concert tours. He has appeared often as a soloist and with orchestras

Born on December 17, 1944 in São Paulo, Brazil, Barbosa-Lima grew up in the Brooklyn district of the city. He states that he began playing guitar when he was seven.

Barbosa-Lima recalls that his father, Manuel Carlos, hired an instructor to teach him how to play guitar. The lessons were then transferred from the father to the son, and the child became known in the neighborhood as a prodigy. After two years of lessons with Benedito Moreira, the young man was introduced to Brazilian guitarist composer Luiz Bonfá. Under the recommendation of Bonfa, Barbosa-Lima was directed to Isaias Savio, the father of the classical guitar school of Brasil. At the behest of family, friends, and acquaintances, he made his concert debut in Sao Paulo in November 1957 when he was twelve years old. During the next year, he performed on a television variety show that introduced young musicians and gave a solo concert in Rio de Janeiro. He signed a contract with Chantecler, which was part of RCA Brazil, and in June 1958 he released his first album, Dez Dedos Magicos Num Violão De Ouro.

In 1960 Barbosa-Lima began the life of a traveling musician, touring in Montevideo, Uruguay, and eastern Brazil. He made his American debut in Washington, D.C, in 1967. He toured through the U.S. and Central and South America. Barbosa-Lima was now making his own arrangements for guitar. In 1964 he released an album of arrangements by the popular Brazilian songwriter, Catullo. Friends of Barbosa-Lima heard these arrangements and encouraged him to continue arranging for guitar.

In 1967 Barbosa-Lima gave his New York debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (then known as Carnegie Recital Hall). This concert was met once again with excellent reviews and moved his career onto the global concert stage. In 1968 he went to Madrid to play for Andrés Segovia. After returning two years later, he gave a concert in New York’s Town Hall.

At the conclusion of this concert he was approached by Harold Shaw and Shaw Concerts who offered him a steady stream of concert dates within the United States. With the heavy concert schedule and Master classes now available to him through Shaw Concerts Barbosa-Lima took a teaching position at Carnegie Mellon University (1974–1978). It was during this time that Barbosa-Lima’s reputation as a world class guitarist began to blossom and composers began writing works for him. One very important composer of this time was Alberto Ginastera who composed the Sonata for guitar, op. 47 for Barbosa-Lima. The later end of the decade (1977) saw Barbosa-Lima perform Francisco Mignone’s Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

As the 1980s began Barbosa-Lima moved to New York City (1981) and took a teaching post at the Manhattan School of Music. Once in New York Barbosa-Lima began to perform with Jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd. Upon hearing Barbosa-Lima’s arrangements Mr. Byrd immediately arranged for Barbosa-Lima to meet and perform for Carl Jefferson (the owner of Concord records). Carl Jefferson signed Barbosa-Lima and eleven recordings were to follow on the Concord Jazz label.

In 1982 Barbosa-Lima made frequent contact with fellow Brazilian, Antônio Carlos Jobim, one of the world’s most popular composers of all time. Barbosa-Lima would often meet him at Jobim’s upper east side apartment in New York City for impromptu jam sessions. It was out of these sessions that came the recording Carlos Barbosa-Lima plays Music by Antônio Carlos Jobim and George Gershwin a crossover CD before the word was popular. Jobim was immediately impressed with Barbosa-Lima’s arranging technique for guitar which Barbosa-Lima describes as “multi-linear” basically meaning several voices moving at once like classical guitar technique. At the time of their meetings Jobim was more familiar with the Brazilian guitar technique which utilized a “block chord” technique as Jobim himself used.[21] “…Barbosa-Lima brings an ear attuned to counterpoint and technique that gives each independent line its own voice.

His transcriptions find and define every moving part, in bossa novas and countermelodies together as he does in Gershwin, he sounds like a team of guitarists”. And in keeping with Barbosa-Lima’s multi-linear technique the Cuban composer Leo Brouwer, who has long been a personal friend of his, has said; “…when unknowingly I [Brouwer] walked by a hotel room and heard guitar music I thought I was listening to a guitar duo and then suddenly recognized the music and realized it was Barbosa-Lima playing solo. If I weren’t a guitar player and guitar composer who noticed a mistake by one of the violinists during a rehearsal of a seventy-member orchestra my confusion could be justified. I believe that Carlos Barbosa-Lima is a genius of transcriptions of Latin American music for guitar.”

Currently Barbosa-Lima records for the Zoho music record label and has released five recordings under this label and the direction of Barbosa-Lima’s recordings as well as his concert programing have a definite Latin American concept. In April, 2010 Barbosa-Lima celebrated the release of his fiftieth recording release, Merengue (Zoho Music, CD 200911) at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. (wikipedia)

And here is one of his early albums … On the one hand he plays the great concerto by Eduard Grau and then he interprets classical composers like Bach and Mozart alone on the guitar ! An early masterpiece !

Personnel:
Carlos Barbosa-Lima (guitar)
+
unknown orchestra on 01. – 03.

Tracklist:

01.

Concerto em Modo Frígio Para Violão e Orquestra (Grau)
01. Allegro 5.55
02. Adagio quasi largo 5.39
03. Alegro energético 6.07

04. Fuga (Bach) 5.00
05. Variações Sobre Um Tema (Mozart) 9.49
06. Na Ilha Abandonada (Sávio) 3.47

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Nina Simone – I Put A Spell On You (1965)

Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, musician, arranger, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned a broad range of musical styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop.

The sixth of eight children born to a poor family in Tryon, North Carolina, Simone initially aspired to be a concert pianist. With the help of a few supporters in her hometown, she enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. She then applied for a scholarship to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she was denied admission despite a well-received audition, which she attributed to racial discrimination. In 2003, just days before her death, the Institute awarded her an honorary degree.

To make a living, Simone started playing piano at a nightclub in Atlantic City. She changed her name to “Nina Simone” to disguise herself from family members, having chosen to play “the devil’s music” or so-called “cocktail piano”. She was told in the nightclub that she would have to sing to her own accompaniment, which effectively launched her career as a jazz vocalist. She went on to record more than 40 albums between 1958 and 1974, making her debut with Little Girl Blue. She had a hit single in the United States in 1958 with “I Loves You, Porgy”. Her musical style fused gospel and pop with classical music, in particular Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice.

I Put a Spell on You is a studio album by American jazz singer, songwriter, and pianist Nina Simone. Recorded in 1964 and 1965 in New York City, it was released by Philips Records in 1965. It peaked at number 99 on the Billboard 200 chart[3] and number 9 on the UK Albums Chart.[4] The title track, “I Put a Spell on You,” peaked at number 23 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart[5] and number 28 on the UK Singles Chart.

In 2017, NPR placed it at number 3 on the “150 Greatest Albums Made by Women” list. Writing for NPR, Audie Cornish called it “the closest you’ll ever hear her come to pop.” (wikipedia)

One of her most pop-oriented albums, but also one of her best and most consistent. Most of the songs feature dramatic, swinging large-band orchestration, with the accent on the brass and strings. Simone didn’t write any of the material, turning to popular European songsmiths Charles Aznavour, Jacques Brel, and Anthony Newley, as well as her husband, Andy Stroud, and her guitarist, Rudy Stevenson, for bluesier fare. There are really fine tunes and interpretations, on which Simone gives an edge to the potentially fey pop songs, taking a sudden (but not uncharacteristic) break for a straight jazz instrumental with “Blues on Purpose.” The title track, a jazzy string ballad version of the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins classic, gave the Beatles the inspiration for the phrasing on the bridge of “Michelle.” (by Richie Unterberger)

Personnel:
Nina Simone (piano, vocals)
Rudy Stevenson (guitar)
+
unknown orchestra, conducted by Hal Mooney &  Horace Ott

Tracklist:
01. I Put A Spell On You (Hawkins) 2.39
02. Tomorrow Is My Turn (Aznavour/Stellman/Stéphane) 2.55
03. Ne me quitte pas (Brel) 3.40
04. Marriage Is for Old Folks (Carr/Shuman) 3.36
05. July Tree (Jurist/Merriam) 2:41
06. Gimme Some (Stroud) 3.04
07. Feeling Good (Bricusse/Newley) 2.59
08. One September Day (Stevenson) 2.53
09. Blues On Purpose (Stevenson) 3.20
10. Beautiful Land (Bricusse/Newley) 2.00
11. You’ve Got To Learn (Aznavour/Stellman) 2.46
12. Take Care Of Business (Stroud) 2.05

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Graham Bond Organisation – There´s A Bond Between Us (1965)

The Graham Bond Organisation were a British jazz/rhythm and blues group of the early 1960s consisting of Graham Bond (vocals, keyboards, alto-saxophone), Jack Bruce (bass), Ginger Baker (drums), Dick Heckstall-Smith (tenor/soprano saxophone) and John McLaughlin (guitar). They recorded several albums and further recordings were issued when the group’s members achieved fame in progressive rock and jazz fusion. The spelling of the band’s original name varied between releases, often depending on the intended audience. The British English spelled as “Organisation” or “ORGANisation” (Bond’s original plan), while in some other countries outside the UK spelled “Organization”.

At the start of the British rhythm and blues boom the Graham Bond Organisation earned a reputation for playing aggressive R & B with prominent jazz and blues. Bond was the primary songwriter but encouraged the other musicians to contribute material, including Dick Heckstall-Smith’s “Dick’s Instrumental” and Ginger Baker’s “Camels and Elephants”, in which the drummer explored ideas he eventually developed into his signature piece “Toad”. Jack Bruce’s harmonica-driven version of Peter Chatman’s “Train Time” would become a staple in Cream’s live performances.

The first commercial recording by the original lineup of the Graham Bond Organisation was released under the name of singer Winston G. (real name Winston Gork). A protégé of expatriate Australian impresario Robert Stigwood, Winston had launched his career under the pseudonym “Johnny Apollo”. In early 1965 both Winston and the Graham Bond Organisation were part of Stigwood-promoted UK package tour headlined by Chuck Berry (on which Stigwood incurred heavy losses). Since they shared management, the Graham Bond Organisation backed Winston on the Parlophone single “Please Don’t Say” / “Like A Baby”; the A-side was credited “Arrangement directed by Graham Bond” and the B-side “Arrangement directed by Ginger Baker”. The band signed for Decca Records who released their dynamic version of the Don Covay composition “Long Tall Shorty” in 1964, backed with “Long Legged Girl” (“Long Tall Shorty” had been popularised by US singer/organist Tommy Tucker). Their best-known single, and the second released under their own name, was “Tammy” (Jay Livingston/Ray Evans) / “Wade in the Water” (trad. arr. group), recorded on 4 January 1965 at Olympic Sound Studios, London (EMI Columbia DB 7471, 29 January 1965). The track also appeared on their debut album The Sound of 65 (EMI Columbia, March 1965).

In 1965 the band appeared as themselves in the film Gonks Go Beat, where they played two songs including “Harmonica”.

The band’s fourth 45 featured the single-only tracks “Lease on Love” / “My Heart’s in Little Pieces” (July 1965). The A-side is noteworthy for its pioneering use of the Mellotron, which Bond also played on several tracks on their second LP There’s A Bond Between Us (November 1965); the album also included studio versions of the two aforementioned instrumentals. The single and the album tracks are believed to be the first ‘popular’ recordings to feature the instrument, since “Lease on Love” appeared more than a year before the first UK chart hit to feature a Mellotron—Manfred Mann’s “Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James” (October 1966)[2]—and at least 18 months before The Beatles made the Mellotron world-famous with “Strawberry Fields Forever” (January 1967).[3] The tracks recorded for the second album were also the last cut by the original Graham Bond Organisation lineup before Jack Bruce was fired in August 1965. On 7 August 1965 they played at the Richmond-on-Thames Jazz and Blues Festival which was televised on the Shindig TV show.

The band gained minor attention after their ‘Waltz For a Pig’ (originally titled ‘Ode to a Toad’) was issued as the B-side of the Who’s 1966 single ‘Substitute’, which reached number 5 on the UK Singles Chart. The band was billed as ‘the Who Orchestra’ for this release and the track was written by Baker.

The group was plagued with problems because of substance abuse and Baker’s ongoing feud with Bruce. Retrospectives of Cream indicate that Bond deputised Baker to fire Bruce, who joined Manfred Mann for a short time until July 1966 when Baker formed Cream with Bruce and Eric Clapton. The group recorded “St. James’ Infirmary” without Bruce on 10 January 1966, which was released in the United States on the Ascot label and received indifferently. Another sideman was Mike Falana on trumpet.

Bond reformed the Organisation with Jon Hiseman on drums. As a trio, Bond, Heckstall-Smith and Hiseman recorded the single “You’ve Gotta Have Love Babe” / “I Love You” (both by Graham Bond) on 18 January 1967 for Page One records.[5] Bond left for the USA, releasing two albums there in 1969 with well-known session players.[5] Hiseman and Heckstall-Smith would leave to join John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers for Bare Wires (recorded April 1968)[6] before forming Colosseum in the summer of 1968, with Tony Reeves on bass and Dave Greenslade keyboards.

Jon Hiseman, Graham Bond, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Mike Falana:

The Graham Bond Organisation’s lack of commercial success, internal struggles and drug problems brought the band to an end in 1967, but its importance was soon recognised with the vogue for blues and progressive rock and the increased sales of albums. The double album Solid Bond, released by Warner Bros. Records in 1970, compiled live tracks recorded in 1963 by the Graham Bond Quartet (Bond, McLaughlin, Bruce and Baker) and a studio session from 1966 by the final trio version of the Graham Bond Organisation (Bond, Heckstall-Smith and Hiseman).

Graham Bond reunited with his former bandmates in the early 1970s, playing with Ginger Baker’s Air Force and also spending a short time touring with Jack Bruce’s band. He subsequently signed a contract with Vertigo Records and was reportedly off drugs by this time, although he was becoming increasingly obsessed with black magic. Bond died in May 1974, when he was hit by a train at London’s Finsbury Park underground station. (wikipedia)

Their second album for Columbia in less than a year features more of the same, but with less impressive material.

Graham and the band returned to the studio quickly to record a second album. Too quickly, apparently, since There’s A Bond Between Us is a pale imitation of the first. Where the The Sound of 65 was downright sinister-sounding in spots, a good half of TABBU is merely competent R&B played with no more and no less passion than Them or any other R-and-wanna-B act at the time.

The record does include two really interesting “pop” songs: Jack Bruce’s “Hear Me Calling Your Name” and Bond’s “Baby Can It Be True?,” a cross between Tom Jones and Dracula that features one of the earliest appearances of the mellotron. An exciting version of Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say?” and Ginger Baker’s exotic-sounding “Camels And Elephants” (which anticipates his Air Force by several years) are also highlights. But there was something about hearing Bond sing “Hoochie Coochie Man” that set your hairs on end, while I’m pretty sure I actually yawned during the opening instrumental, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

This would be the last official album from The Graham Bond ORGANisation, with a few singles following. (Those singles are appended to the 2009 remaster, and “You’ve Gotta Have Love Baby” from 1967 is an ear-opening experience.) The organization had a world of talent (Dick Heckstall-Smith might have been the best horn player in a rock band at the time), they just didn’t have a clear roadmap. There’s A Bond Between Us will appeal to completists and Cream aficionados I suppose (who share a similar supply chain problem), but I’d definitely start out with their first. (

But … it´s still  a great album !

Personnel:
Ginger Baker (drums)
Graham Bond (organ, mellotron, saxophone, vocals)
Jack Bruce (bass, harmonica, vocals)
Dick Heckstall-Smith (saxophone)

 

Tracklist:
01. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Kirkpatrick/Knox) 2.03
02. Hear Me Calling Your Name (Bruce) 2.35
03. The Night Time Is The Right Time (Herman) 2.59
04. Walkin’ In The Park (Bond) 3.28
05. Last Night (Axton/Smith/Newman/Moman/Caple) 2.58
06. Baby Can It Be True? (Bond) 5.02
07. What’d I Say? (Charles) 4.13
08. Dick’s Instrumental (Heckstall-Smith) 2.31
09. Don’t Let Go (Stone) 2.42
10. Keep A’Drivin’ (Willis) 2.03
11. Have You Ever Loved A Woman? (Bond) 4.51
12. Camels And Elephants (Baker) 3.04

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Graham Bond (28 October 1937 – 8 May 1974)

Bob Dylan – Folk Rogue (1998)

This album is one to grab for several reasons. First of all, The Newport shows from Freebody Park are essential both to any serious Dylan collection, as well as to any music historian. This set compares the sublime acoustic folk ’64 show to the infamous ‘Electric’ ’65 show that forever changed the face of folk, rock, and folk-rock music. The entire CD is soundboard recordings, and this is the best sounding Newport recordings ever. The filler material is of fascinating historical importance as well. The two missing songs from the newly discovered Hollywood Bowl show. Finally, the aesthetics are nice andthe venue information is complete. (bobsboots.com)

In the span of exactly 365 days, from his July 26, 1964, appearance at the famed Newport Folk Festival to his return on July 25, 1965, Bob Dylan rocketed from folk luminary to lightning rod. After first abandoning the protest themes of his classic early anthems to focus on more poetic, personal subjects, Dylan next forsook the rigid traditions of roots music to go electric, drawing on the spirit of rock & roll to forge a revolutionary and controversial sound all his own. The must-have bootleg release Folk Rogue 1964-1965 contains both Newport sets in their entirety, and the contrast is extraordinary: while the 1964 audience treats sublime, introspective songs like “It Ain’t Me, Babe” and “All I Really Want to Do” with reverence and awe, the 1965 crowd seems poised on the brink of anarchy, and regardless of whether the catalyst was the elemental ferocity of the music, the inadequate sound system, or the brevity of the three-song set, the tension is palpable, and it elevates Dylan and his band to remarkable heights.

Adding a pair of songs from Dylan’s September 3, 1965, show at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl for good measure, Folk Rogue 1964-1965 remains the definitive single-disc presentation of this landmark material. Soundboard-quality fidelity and tasteful packaging complete an essential collection, although Dandelion’s two-disc From Newport to the Ancient Empty Streets in LA adds the Hollywood Bowl show in its entirety while subtracting “It Ain’t Me Babe” from the 1964 Newport appearance, so comparison shopping is recommended. (by Jason Ankeny)

Personnel:
Bob Dylan (guitar, vocals, harmonica)
+
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (08. – 10.)
+
Joan Baez (background vocals on 01.)

Tracklist:
01. It Ain’t Me, Babe 3.39
02 All I Really Want To Do 4.09
03. To Ramona 4.33
04. Mr. Tambourine Man 7.27
05. Chimes Of Freedom 8.00
06. Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright 3.33
07. All I Really Want To Do 1.37
08. Maggies Farm 6.47
09. Like A Rolling Stone 5.54
10. Phantom Engineer 4.13
11. Tombstone Blues 4.45
12. It Ain’t Me, Babe 4.38
13. We Want Bobby 1.56
14. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue 5.33
15. Mr. Tambourine Man 6.55

All songs written by Bob Dylan

Track 1 recorded July 24, 1964 at the Newport Folk Festival with Joan Baez
Tracks 2-5 recorded July 26, 1964 at the Newport Folk Festival
Track 6 recorded May 6, 1965 at City Hall, Newcastle, U.K.
Track 7 recorded July 24, 1965 at the Newport Folk Festival afternoon workshop
Tracks 8-10 recorded July 25, 1965 at the Newport Folk Festival with the Butterfield Blues Band
Tracks 11-12 recorded September 3, 1965 at the Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, California
Tracks 13-15 recorded July 25, 1965 at the Newport Folk Festival

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More Bob Dylan: