Hard Luck Guy

"To this day, I still play all his records with great enjoyment, He remains unique, a white boy who truly sang and played in the spirit of the great black soul artists he venerated. With Eddie it wasn't imitation, it was totally created, with a fire and a fury that was as real as Otis Redding's and Wilson Pickett's"
Jerry Wexler

Great white soul voices? Rod Stewart? Steve Winwood?
Pah! Ladies and gentlemen I give you THE great white soul voice the late great  Hard Luck Guy himself
Mr Eddie Hinton.
Listen and weep Rod!

Eddie Hinton - Hard Luck Guy

Eddie Hinton - I Can't Be Me

Famous Belgians

                                                       Marouane Fellaini or Macy Gray?

 I am about to watch  the Scotland v Belgium football international with a fair degree of trepidation.
Gone are the days you could struggle to name 5 famous Belgians ( a famously patronising British game - apologies to our chums across the channel)
Eddie Merckx
Jean Claude Van Damme
Tin Tin (fictional - does not count)
Hercule Poirot (likewise)
Le Mannequin Pis (statue)
And of course Plastic Bertrand!


Now it's really easy Felliani, Kompany, Hazard, Benteke, Lukaku - to name but 5
They are a team on the up and up and I fear the worst - I'm sure you'll get your revenge for the parlour game above although we did ok against England and beat Croatia away.

On the subject of Plastic Bertrand , Pascal Dutrembles a French friend of my friend Donno had the keyboard player from Plastic Bertrand's band playing the music at his wedding last year.
Friend of the stars!

Plastic Bertrand - Ca Plane Pour Moi

Monkee Business

The cover of Daydream Believer on a recent post here got my thinking of The Monkees the original manufactured boy band set up to cash in on the fame of the Beatles.
Mikey Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork and the late Davie Jones started in a TV series about an imaginary band but quickly became the real thing and amazingly successful they were too outselling both the Beatles and the Stones at their peak in 1967.
It may well be sacrilege to some  but I much prefer them to the Beatles! Anyone else agree?
Michael Nesmith went on to have a reasonably successful career as a songwriter in the Americana genre
First up is Pleasant Valley Sunday - I have an excellent cover version by the Wedding Present somewhere.
The second song is for Luca and all other Italian followers of this blog


On the subject of manufactured boy bands I can't see One Direction featuring in too many blogs in 45 years time.

The Monkees - Pleasant Valley Sunday

The Monkees - Tema Dei Monkees

Go Flo

I'm sure that most of you, or the British readers at any rate, will be familiar with   the rise and rise  of Florence and the Machine.
Their debut album Lungs released in 2009 has sold a phenomenal 3 million copies worldwide with the 2011 follow up Ceremonials heading in a similar direction.
This is one of their earlier songs, and in my opinion their best , and shows that Ms Welch's Lungs are indeed in fine fettle.
Purchased for £1.50 at the weekend to replace my library burn
She's got the love but it looks as though her hands need a good wash!

Florence & the Machine - Dog Days are Over

Bloodshot Tuesday 7

This week on Bloodshot Tuesday it is time for Bloodshot stalward and the king of pedal steel and hawaiian guitar Mr Jon Rauhose.
From Phoenix, Arizona  he previously featured as a member of the Grevious Angels on
Bloodshot Tuesday 2

This is from his 2002 album Jon Rauhouse's Steel Guitar Air Show (BS093) where he is joined by Calexico and numerous Bloodshot honchos
And it gets even better as Jon Rauhouse's Steel Guitar Rodeo will feature at a later date.
Don't say I'm not good to you!
Bob Wills meets Glen Miller - indeed!

Jon Rauhouse -Who's the Baddie? Says Alan Laddie

For One Week Only - The Return of Mexican Monday

On hearing the sad news that Linda Rondstadt has Parkinsons I decided to resurrect Mexican Monday for one week only.
She joins a long list of people including Mohammad Ali, Michael J Fox and my mother who have this horrible and debilitating disease.
A song from her Mas Canciones album from 1991 would have previously featured on Mexican Monday had I the vinyl converter technology at the time.
The definitive version of Carmelita has already appeared but it is always good to hear another version
I never knew until Friday., courtesy of Ricky Ross on BBC Radio Scotland's tremendous Another Country programme that Linda and James Taylor had provided backing vocals on both Harvest and Harvest Moon.
Every day's a school day
There are no songs featured from the Living in the USA album but the roller skating image is the one I always associate with LR

Linda Rondstadt - El Crucifijo De Piedra

Linda Rondstadt - Carmelita

Neil Young - Harvest Moon

Say It Again

Like most of you I suspect,  I have been enjoying the Political Protest songs feature on The New Vinyl Villian

I thought that I would offer one of my own from the mighty Edwin Starr given that I purchased his Essential Collection yesterday

Written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong in 1969,War quickly became a rallying song for all those who opposed the war in Vietnam.
It is also,sadly,  still pretty topical given what is about to kick off in Syria.

I defy you to last the rest of the day without shouting out loud at least once "War - huh, good god  What is it good for ... Absolutely Nothing  ... Say it Again"

If you've got kids  feel free to get them involved too!

Edwin Starr -War