1976 saw some revolutionary moments. The Soweto uprising saw around 20,000 students take part in protests across South Africa following the introduction of Afrikaans as the language of teaching in schools. This was clearly an attempt to alienate further that black population of South Africa and the protests gave the world another opportunity to see the horror of apartheid. NASA landed Viking 1 onto the surface of Mars, the first successful visit to another planet and a group of guys called Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne started a company called Apple, setting into motion a revolution in the technology we have around us every day.

James Callaghan became Prime Minister in the UK, although by-elections soon meant he led a minority government and despite his early successes he would be defeated by Margaret Thatcher’s conservative government just three years later. 1976 was also the year of the famous “heatwave” and saw the first commercial flights of the supersonic jet Concorde

Music was just as revolutionary, with 1976 seen by many as the “year one” of punk music, so whilst we saw The Eagles’ Hotel California and ABBA’s The Arrival 1976 saw the debut album from The Ramones and the first UK punk singles by The Damned and The Sex Pistols. The sound of punk permeates my list of greatest singles for this year, but it’s not all punk! There was plenty of diversity in this year’s music, including some lush romantic ballads, classic disco and great rock and roll.

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The top twenty-five

25: The Walker Brothers - We’re All Alone

A case in point, The Walker Brothers released their version of Boz Scaggs’ lush ballad in October, a few months after Frankie Valli had released his version. It showcases Scott Walker’s remarkable voice and is full of delightful strings, warm harmonies and that beautiful melody. It’s all the more fascinating when you think about the music Scott would be writing and recording over the next few years. It’s almost like a final nod to the sweet beauty of the Walker Brothers before he stepped into an avant-garde world.

24: Wild Cherry - Play That Funky Music

When someone said, “Are you going to play some funky music, white boys?” to the band during a performance at a Pittsburgh nightclub this rock covers band quicky wrote this great tribute to the funk rock sounds of the time. Sometimes dismissed as an example of a white rock band appropriating the sounds of Black American funk, I see it differently. I saw Prince cover this at the O2 in London and so quite simply if Prince thinks this is good enough to pass his test it passes mine. It’s delightfully funky fun, with such a recognisable opening riff and a perfect, singalong chorus.

23: Blue Öyster Cult- (Don’t Fear) the Reaper

Containing just the perfect amount of cowbell this is a powerful rock song reminding us of the inevitability of death and that whilst we needn’t fear it, love can transcend that fear and love is as eternal as death. It opens with a memorable guitar riff built around A minor and it rumbles on like a train on tracks. It will forever be associated with the Saturday Night Live “more cowbell” but as the same time has enough style to transcend that (very funny) parody.

22: Parliament - Do That Stuff

The first single from their album The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein, and a minor hit, this is a deeply funky groove that opens with a stylish drum pattern before becoming a cool ensemble piece sung by George Clinton, Glenn Goins, Garry Shider and Taka Kahn. Their voices overlap each other and the dancing horns, the whole track strutting with style, the track celebrating the world of funk.

They were still gettin’ down came daylight
Been funkin’ most ever since midnight

It features a cool little guitar lick that slides in and out at various points in the song and wonderfully catchy backing vocals.

21: Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way

The band’s first top-ten hit in the United States, as Lindsey Buckingham took the band through their most successful period, Go Your Own Way is a radio rock classic about the break-up of Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Mick Fleetwood is cleverly restrained on the drums as they parry with the ringing acoustic guitars. It’s propelled into the stratosphere by the beautiful, soaring chorus, allowing the voices of Buckingham, Nicks and Christine McVie to mesh and blend perfectly. With its neat little guitar solo as well it is a great piece of power pop.

20: Cameo - Find My Way

Opening side two of their debut album Cardiac Arrest, Find My Way is a superb example of the disco dance sound that got smothered by the more synthesiser-led sounds of the 80s. It’s got a smooth funk groove, a great opening drum beat and superb bass line. The band seems to be singing with infectious smiles in a quasi-lounge singer style, smooth and cool, but there’s a deep funk groove in the background. There’s a superb funk workout in the middle, the whole band on fire.

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19: ABBA- Money, Money, Money

A clever little piece of pop schlager built around a neat little piano riff and a superb melody. It’s classic Europop with a delightful touch of Weimar-era music theatre running through it. Brilliantly catchy, it’s a capitalist hymn, dreaming of the “money, money, money” or a “rich man’s world”, which is where I imagine all of ABBA have lived for quite a while.

18: Cliff Richard- Devil Woman

I adore two Cliff Richard songs, Wired for Sound from 1981 and this brilliant rock single. It works because everything comes together perfectly. The opening electric piano and guitar lines are filled with an unexpected touch of menace, and Richard sings with a hissing, serpentine style. The track builds slowly to its disco infused rock chorus, trying to be deep and scary but is in fact full of cool hooks. Whilst I find most of his music insipid and unadventurous, this single fills me with joy every time I hear it.

17: Paul Simon - Still Crazy After All These Years

A deeply nostalgic and sweet jazz pop track built around some wonderful Fender Rhodes playing by Barry Beckett. Simon’s voice is fabulous, floating over the music and adding bluesy touches here and there, compounding a sense of loneliness and solitude presented by the lyrics and Michael Brecker’s darting saxophone. Undoubtedly one of Simon’s best songs, full of drama and intelligence, but he wasn’t afraid to poke fun at himself with a note perfect performance on Saturday Night Live the same year.

16: Kraftwerk - Radioactivity

In contrast to everything that has come on the list so far, Kraftwerk point to a space-rock future with the incredible sounds of their synthesizers on this icy and sparse piece of magic. Ralf Hütter sings without emotion over a thudding and repetitive electronic bass line. The synthesizers almost sing like a processed choir as the song moves at its glacial pace. It is quite remarkable, and like nothing that had come before. The electronic percussion of Karl Bartos and Wolfgang Fleur is precise and dramatic on this tribute to the sounds of the radio. Morse Code blasts punctuate the song, straddling the divide between analogue electronic sounds and the new world of the synthesizer.

15: Nick Lowe - So It Goes

Clearly modelled on the sound of Thin Lizzy’s The Boys are Back in Town (Lowe had been touring with them) this is a great piece of pub rock, full of power pop cool. It dances and shines, and Lowe sings it with an infectious cool, his voice seemingly double tracked to add a sweet harmonic feel. The repetitive chorus, where his voice overlaps itself over and over is incredibly catchy and the whole thing benefits from Lowe’s jangling, ringing guitar sounds. It’s a great example of early New Wave ready to transform what would be the emerging punk sound.

14: AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

A joy from the moment that darting, bouncing, dirty guitar riff cranks out. Bon Scott is in superb voice as a hitman for hire ready to do anything to bump someone off, He lists various methods: concrete shoes, cyanide, TNT, neck ties, high voltage, cleverly linking the track to two previous albums (High Voltage and TNT). Angus and Malcolm Young play powerful twin guitars with some of the best guitar sounds around.

13: Diana Ross - Love Hangover

An utterly captivating disco hit (it made number one in the US and top ten in the UK), this track is a slinky hybrid of two very different songs. It starts slow and sultry, moving through a funky but careful groove, Ross’s voice strong and clear. It’s a Motown pop song of love, with Philadelphia soul-styled strings. Then, a little after a minute it steps into a fabulous funk workout, with a brilliant bassline played by Henry E. Davis and some liquid guitar. Ross sings in a breathy, confident style during these fantastic two and a half minutes, which are even more fun on the 8 minutes of the 12” version.

12: Sly Stone - Crossword Puzzle

Showing he still had the groove, Sly put out this wonderful funk track, with its clever overlapping horn sounds, sampled by De La Soul for Say No Go. The beat drives on, incessant and funky, giving you no choice but to not your head. The backing vocals, singing the title over and over, are magnificent, adding a stylish bit of interplay between vocalists as the song grooves on. He also sings with himself, adding interjections to the main vocal line, increasing the funky feel. It didn’t chart but it is a superb piece of funk

11: Dion - Born To Be With You

The title track of his 1975 album recorded with Phil Spector, a record that Dion described as “funeral music”, and one that, despite a stunning line-up of Wrecking Crew musicians, was a critical and commercial flop. The album is fabulous as is this single. It stretches into existence, a long, languid opening, country guitars clucking around Jimmy Getzoff’s strings. We get a perfect Spector drum beat, slow and heavy, as Nino Tempo wails a sax solo. The song is an atmospheric soul track, updated for the lazy 70s, and it’s full of cool. Springsteen visited the recording sessions, and Born to Run is steeped in the sound we get here. This is a long, confident song, nothing funereal about it.

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The top ten

10: Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes - I Don’t Want to Go Home

What a magical and effervescent song this is. It just feels so life affirming in its New Jersey sound. Written by Little Steven Van Zandt, Johnny is preaching loud and proud, and it simply drips with energy and excitement, full of the NJ version of Spector-like rock and soul. The Miami Horns blast and the strings add a dramatic, relentless cool. Like discovering a different version of Springsteen, Southside Johnny is a musician known as the Grandfather of the New Jersey Sound, and this record demonstrates that to perfection.

9: Bootsy Collins - I’d Rather Be With You

Signing to Warners as a breakout funk star, Bootsy allowed George Clinton to try out slightly more commercial grooves in the midst of his funk empire. I’d Rather Be With You is built around that dark Bootsy bass sound, and he also plays a deeply funky wah-wah guitar as Cordell “Boogie” Mosson lays down a cool beat. Drop in Bernie Worrell on keys and a wailing guitar from Gary Shider and you’ve got a P-Funk song in all but name. Bootsy sings with Gary “Mudbone” Cooper and Robert “Peanut” Johnson on a catchy laid back groove that steps into a funkier workout after two minutes before settling back into the original groove. Their voices entwine and dance around each other, the whole track full of a swampy, slinky feel. Essential.

8: The Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK

Full of blistering anger, this has a revolutionary sound, taking a set of rock and roll chords and filtering them through a glam rock sound. It blew the UK music world into pieces at the time of its release, with record label EMI dropping the band a few months later after their foul mouthed performance on the Today show, where they taunted a drunk Bill Grundy. The song is probably the Pistols’ greatest moment and although it wasn’t the first punk song, it could well be the most important one from the UK. John Lydon’s voice is a razor slash of whining anger and Steve Jones’ guitar dirty and relentless. Glen Matlock and Paul Cook hold down the chugging beat throughout this cry of independence.

7: The Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop

Opening with that famous chant of “Hey! Ho! Let’s Go!”, The Ramones concentrated 50s rock and roll down into the birth of modern punk music by crunching up the guitars and singing in a monotone and simple way. It’s probably the first important record in the world of punk and it is full of huge, dumb and stunningly infectious energy. It doesn’t bother with nuance or flair, settling instead with being relentless in the way it thunders through its two minutes twelve seconds on insanity.

6: The Saints - (I’m) Stranded

Released after Blitzkrieg Bop but before Anarchy in the UK or New Rose by The Damned, (I’m) Stranded was a trailblazing single in the world of Australian punk music: music that felt like it meant something. Initially self published on their own Fatal Records label, with a pressing of 500 copies, it became a vitally important record. The track gallops at breakneck speed, the guitars buzzing and crunching as Chris Bailey sings in his lazy, carefree style. The riff gets under your skin, sounding modern but instantly familiar at the same time, the song a brilliant example of the best kind of punk.

5: The Runaways - Cherry Bomb

Coming out in June of 1976 The Runaways straddled the hard rock world of glam and the emerging sound of punk with this raucous and wonderfully daft and snarling song. Lead singer Cherie Currie was 16 when she sang this and most probably exploited by manager Kim Fowler, but luckily the talented Joan Jett was also drafted into the band, and she was able to craft the group into hard rock brilliance. This single is pure rock and roll, cleverly pushing the idea of teenage rebellion in the way Currie sings:

Hello Daddy, hello Mom,
I’m your ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb

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4: Patti Smith - Gloria: In Excelsis Deo

A quite stunning take on the Van Morrison song Gloria, this version, at almost six minutes, starts with Smith’s poem Oath and that famous opening line, “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine”. Smith interpolates the original by Them into something quite remarkable, full of streetwise switchblade smarts. It builds and builds, just twisting and turning, the guitars growling and climbing until it explodes after three minutes into a stunning chorus, a loose, carefree, drunken take on the original. It’s a live in the studio performance, sweaty and breathless, crashing from side to side as it gallops onwards, guitars fighting with each other, cymbals smashing out and Smith screaming and yelling with the ultimate punk energy.

The top three

3: Richard Hell - Blank Generation

Although a single came out in 1977 this track was part of the Another World EP from 1976, and EPs count for my lists without a doubt. I was mesmerised by this song when I first heard it. It opens with a cool, metallic riff and stabbing guitar lines before transforming into a horse race of punk energy, a clever updating of Bob McFadden’s cynical The Beat Generation. Hell’s song is not cynical but relentlessly nihilistic and carefree. The guitars sound incredible, Robert Quine and Ivan Julian smashing their strings with iron madness. It pauses for cool “50s cat” backing vocals and then accelerates. It just feels revolutionary.

2: The Damned - New Rose

The first punk single from a UK band, this has a particularly English take on the genre. The drums from Rat Scabies are incredible, thundering with heavy dark energy and Brian James guitar buzzsaws and snarls before taking an extra step of overdrive as the song kicks in. Produced by Nick Lowe, it has that perfect sense of bubblegum pop that punk does so well when coupled with relentlessly angry guitars and vocals spat into the microphone. The Damned were at the forefront of the English punk scene, and for me only The Clash better their early work. The song then formed part of their debut album, Damned Damned Damned, which was also the first British punk album. Vanguards of the ultimate punk spirit, this single shows them at their best.

1: Parliament - P. Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)

Good evening. Do not attempt to adjust your radio, there is nothing wrong. We have taken control as to bring you this special show. We will return it to you as soon as you are grooving.

More than a song, this is a manifesto, but it is a manifesto that makes you dance. In amongst the punk explosion of 1976 sits this quite stunning dance anthem, built around George Clinton’s imagined radio station WE-FUNK. The song starts with its slinky, jazzy and laid back funk, swelling with style until it blasts you open with one of the greatest choruses in music history. The song fills me with uncapped joy. Clinton uses his typical witty wordplay to imagine funk as cocaine (“I want my funk uncut”), the band stomp on the one, with Bootsy Collins playing some of the coolest liquid bass of his career, Bernie Worrell hitting the keyboards with soul and the horns dancing and squirming around, The single edit cuts out a little laid back workout from Michael Brecker in the middle, but retains all of the funk. Utterly spellbinding.

Lollipop Man here, alias the Long-Haired Sucker.
Chocolate coated, freaky and habit-forming

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About me

I have a radio show, Single Minded, on Radio Alty, every week on Wednesday at 8pm (UK). Listen here:

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I have also written a book about the great singles of the 1960s which can be found on Amazon:

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [UK]

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [USA]

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [CAN and beyond!]

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They were idiots, in lots of ways: Keith Moon delighted in trashing hotel rooms and blowing up toilets, like some sort of spoiled brat, John Entwistle died at 57 after going to bed with a Nevada stripper and groupie after binging on cocaine, Pete Townshend received a police caution after using his credit card to access a child sexual abuse images website and even Roger Daltrey, who has done some great work for charity over the years, has drifted too far the right for my liking, describing Jeremy Corbyn as a “communist”, complaining about “mass immigration” policies, and criticising the Me Too movement. So there are plenty of things that The Who have done that I don’t like. But the music…oh what music…

And so I give you 25 of the best. These are my 25 favourite songs by The Who. Maximum R&B.

25: Circles

A fabulous piece of guitar pop; a track that got released and then pushed to one side for Substitute. I first heard the cover by The Fleur de Lys which adds a nice opening riff, but the original has a relentless clanging pop groove and is a great splice between their mod sound and the emerging psychedelic of the mid 60s. The harmonies just about hang on to each other adding a louche cool to this great track.

24: Amazing Journey

I wasn’t keen on Tommy when I first heard it. I’d seen the film late one evening as a kid and certain things stuck in my mind: Ann-Margaret writhing in baked beans, the menace of cousin Kevin, Jack Nicholson singing, Sally Simpson’s scarred face, but it took me a while to get into the original album. It rocks differently to how I expected. But when it clicked I loved it. Amazing Journey is typical - gentle, high tenor vocals, the perfect clang of Townshend’s guitar, Moon everywhere on his kit and clever, expressive lyrics that set out the story. The track even segues into a funky workout for the last minute and a half that sounds deliciously cool.

23: Bell Boy

Quadrophenia, on the other hand, I loved from the start. Townshend’s attempt at a rock opera based around the life of early 60s mods is just about perfect, and the film is one of my all time favourites. Bell Boy blasts open with a roll of Moon’s drums before the guitars and horns call out. Daltrey sings with gutsy power as he tells the story of the “face” who now works at a Brighton hotel. Moon plays the bell boy, barking out his lyrics, remembering the days when he smashed up the hotel rather than working there. The song paints an amazing picture through music and lyrics, and it rolls and crashes for five perfect minutes.

22: Zoot Suit

For about seven months in 1964 The Who were called The High Numbers following a suggestion from publicist Peter Meaden. In that time they put their first single out, a snappy R&B track looking to appeal to their mod following. Written by Meaden it’s a virtual copy of Misery by The Dynamics

It’s a great piece of garage rock, a snaking guitar line and a cool feel, even if it is a piece of relentless theft!

21: Armenia City in the Sky

Written by Speedy Keen of Thunderclap Newman, this was the opening track of the 1967 album The Who Sell Out. It’s a mod version of psychedelia, backward guitars and spacy lyrics go shoulder to shoulder with crunching guitar chords and a chugging fuzz bass. It’s fascinating how they pronounce Armenia, singing “Are-men-ear”, but it works and adds to the cool of the song. It’s a simple and perhaps even silly song, but it’s a track I love.

20: Pinball Wizard

One of their most famous tracks, and the track that became the centrepiece of Tommy, it had a fascinating birth. After playing a rough cut of the Tommy album to journalist Nick Cohn, Cohn thought it would be good if Tommy was good at some game or other. Allegedly, Townshend knew that Cohn was an avid pinball fan, and so Townshend suggested that Tommy would play pinball. Hours later, Pinball Wizard was written. Opening with classically influenced acoustic guitar it bursts into a catchy rock track, with floating harmonies , crunching guitars and manic drums. The simple four chord riff is incredibly recognisable, as is the ringing acoustic chord pattern.

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19: Won’t Get Fooled Again

The opening, dancing, synthesizer sends a chill of excitement down my spine as this song gets ready to explode and within second we have a simple but cool riff dancing around around A, D and G. It has a kind of souped up country rock feel, but the power of the guitar propels it into space. Townshend fires out his anger in the lyrics, noting the cynical aspiration he’d seen at Woodstock: “All those hippies wandering about thinking the world was going to be different from that day. As a cynical English arsehole, I walked through it all and felt like spitting on the lot of them…” It’s such a simple groove but it works so well: Daltrey is in great, lung bursting voice and Townshend uses his chord patterns to great effect.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

18: I Can See For Miles

I’ve always thought of this song as a kind of inchoate version of Won’t Get Fooled Again, an early example of the hard rock version of The Who. Even more simplified musically, it’s basically three chords on a dirty sounding guitar, blisteringly angry psychedelia, but feeling the acid comedown from the party rather than the spacey dream of 1967. It is deliciously heavy in the way it cranks out its sound, and Moon’s rolling, endless drum beat is hypnotic.

17: Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand

This comes from the same album as I Can See for Miles but it could not be more different. It is a beautiful pastoral piece, built around an acoustic guitar and some lovely harmonies. It has a gentle melody full of folk-rock sensibilities and paints a sweet picture of Mary Anne and her shaky hand, and whatever it gets up to.

16: 5:15

An atmospheric and operatic piece from Quadrophenia, it opens with a melodic cry of “Why should I care?” before bursting into a barroom rocker with dancing horns and Daltrey singing about the nihilistic life of Jimmy, the main character, as he travels on a train, full of uppers, wide eyed and angry. The harmonic backing vocals are perfect, even if they add a glossy shine to the wildness of the words.

15: The Punk and The Godfather

Even angrier, and even cooler, The Punk and The Godfather tells the tale of Jimmy watching his favourite band (The Who themselves?) and realising they are just a band, that it is just a job, and that they were not immersed in the world of modculture like he was. It opens with some superb ringing chords and delightful touches of bass from Entwistle. It’s a superb song, musically fascinating because it seems like such a straightforward rock track, but it’s interspersed with touches and flourishes that add delightful colour as it bounces along.

14: The Acid Queen

The difference between the album version and the stunningly bombastic version of Tina Turner on the film has always fascinated me. I heard Tina’s version first so it took me a while to get the original, as it pulls back from the angry, hard rock chords of the band. The notes ring out and Townshend sings in his country voice. The chorus is fantastic, but it holds back the whole time, making the Acid Queen of the song feel much more manipulative, scheming and planning how to corrupt Tommy by pretending to “cure” him. Townshend saw it about the pressure that society forces on you to indulge yourself in a nihilistic lifestyle. “She represents this force.”

13: I’m Free

The culmination of Tommy, when suddenly he escapes from his physical limitations, and takes a step to become a spiritual leader. It is a cynical description of the hippy dream built around a superb guitar riff and a bouncing, off-beat piano. Daltrey sings with his sweetest voice and there’s a great acoustic guitar work out near the middle. As part of a rock opera, it calls back to Pinball Wizard near the end, Tommy’s followers singing, “How can we follow?” over and over, fading out carefully.

12: Behind Blue Eyes

From maximum R&B to maximum folk-rock. Behind Blue Eyes is a beautiful, sweet song full of ringing acoustic guitars and spotless harmonies. The melody feels like a classic English folk song and the song feels warm and pastoral. Entwistle plays a clean and clever bass line under the song. Just over two minutes in it takes a step into a folk rocker, guitar lines snaking and slipping and Moon’s drums rolling and crashing. The riff cracks out over and over before a neat return to the sweet opening lines and we end on a delightful harmony.

11: Doctor Jimmy

The most powerful track on Quadrophenia, this is a merciless and nasty tale of the dark side of Jimmy. It is a great piece of stadium rock, with synth horns and classic Townshend crashing chords What really makes it are the lyrics: dark and unforgiving, painting a clear picture of people living for the weekend, living for getting out of their heads and becoming someone dangerous and without care. The lyrics hold nothing back

You say she’s a virgin
But I’m gonna be the first in
Her fella’s gonna kill me?
Oh fucking will he?

It’s a perfect picture of a scene I’ve seen in countless towns over countless years. It is backed by powerful, dramatic music. There’s an amazing moment of self-doubt halfway through: pensive, wistful and unsure, before the music crashes back and Jimmy comes back to his desire for fighting, drink and drugs. A breathless masterpiece.

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The top ten

10: The Real Me

The real opening song of Quadrophenia after the blissful overture of I Am The Sea, The Real Me explodes, full of frantic energy. The chords are magnificent, and Entwistle’s lead bass is stunning. The track rocks, rolls and breathes fire as Daltrey gets us into the head of Jimmy and his inability to understand his mind, his sense of insanity, and his emerging sense of “quadrophenia”. It is such an exciting song it sums up the power of the album in three neat minutes. Moon is magnificent, using every part of the kit to help the song gallop forwards and builds and builds with energy. Stunning.

9: Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere

The Who’s second single, this is an attempt at an R&B pop song, taking the beat sounds of the time but adding steel and crunch. It features some cool piano lines from Nicky Hopkins and a slice of guitar feedback during the instrumental break, mimicking the madness of the band’s live sound at the time. The whole thing is on the verge of collapse throughout that part, and then suddenly it snaps back into a cool pop groove,built for dancing and singing along with. It’s a great power pop blast.

8: The Kids are Alright

Opening with a delightfully clear D chord, this is another great power pop track of the kind that the band could throw out with ease in the mid-60s. The chorus is full of beauty as it rises and falls until it lands on the song’s title. In the middle there’s another superbly noisy instrumental part that rounds back to the crystal melodic beauty of the song.

7: The Seeker

Release early 1970, this was a single-only release and it continues their power pop style but injects it with a harder rock sound. The song opens with some magnificent chords playing a cool, simple, but perfect groove. Townshend was not too keen on it himself, “It suffered from being the first thing we did after Tommy, and also from being recorded a few too many times,” but I think it is marvellous, and it hit the UK top twenty that year. There’s a country rock feel running through it, and it moves through a typical blues progression, but it’s constructed with style and glitter.

6: Baba O’Riley

One of the band’s most celebrated songs, the track is recognisable from the second the bubbling, dancing notes of Townshend’s Lowrey Organ appear. Guitar chords are expected, but in fact we get three cool piano chords, echoing and ringing. Daltrey yells out this tale of a farmer’s life. The guitar comes in, copying and cranking out the chords and we’re into a rock masterpiece. Townshend sings middle eight that reminds us “It’s only teenage wasteland…” and the song circles back to those relentless chords. I love how a band can take a chord pattern used millions of times before and make it sound brand new and utterly unique. The track has an instrumental break for the final minute and a half, guitar dueling with Dave Arbus’s jaunty fiddle before he’s let off the reins and allowed to bring the track to a reeling, breathless conclusion.

5: I’m a Boy

A magic piece of power pop reminding us of the existence of trans people across the decades. It’s a fun song, at times infused with touches of humour but equally painting a picture of someone forced to live a life in a different way to how they feel themselves to be. The chorus rings and soars and there’s a beautiful instrumental break, Townshend playing a range of clever, melodic chords, before the track returns to its magnificent final verse

I wanna play cricket on the green
Ride my bike across the stream
Cut myself and see my blood
I wanna come home all covered in mud

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4: Substitute

This track has one of the greatest opening chord patterns ever recorded, Townshend cleverly playing the D - D - A - G - G - D - D using open notes and the top three strings. The song is lyrically fun and cheeky, painting wonderful images of the narrator’s insecurity and fear. It’s all done with a fabulous power pop feel, and slips into a She Bangs The Drums style galloping instrumental break to add to the magic. I can’t get enough of the opening chords and it sounds better than most other bands’ entire output.

The top three

3: My Generation

Their most famous song, this is a furious clanging dance groove based around two chords and a stunning bassline, Entwistle is the star here, his bass solos breathtaking and relentless, but the whole band play their part so well. Daltrey sings with barely disguised hatred of the old guard they’d come to replace, Townshend hits his strings so hard, making the guitar moan and squeal and Moon pulverises his kit, knowing when to step back and when to just hit every damn drum. Like Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere, it’s another track designed to remind us of their live sound, and it collapses under its own weight at the end, a buzzing, echoing noise.

2: I Can’t Explain

Their first single as The Who is a three chord masterpiece, opening with those stabbing chords before Moon and Entwistle join in. Even when they introduced their hard R&B sound with these chords, they still feature sweet harmonies, a clever call and response groove and a pure pop chorus. The solos ring and dance, and Moon is restrained and precise in his drumming on a stunning debut.

1: A Quick One, While He’s Away

The band’s first attempt at a mini rock opera, this is a portmanteau of songs that come together to create pure magic. It’s built around six movements. The opening acapella piece tells us that “her man’s been gone, for nearly year” and has still not arrived, their voices blending sweetly. Then on movement two we get a wonderful, simple riff, circling around D, G, D7, and Roger Daltrey sings in a laconic, deliberate, narrative style. This piece builds with cool energy, with sweet wordless backing vocals and pop grooves before it become crunchier and Moon starts to galop over his snare drums. The track stops abruptly for movement three, a melodic “We have a remedy” the townsfolk sing, hoping she can wait for her love, but suddenly things cut out and Entwistle arrives as the dangerous Ivor for movement four. He seems to be comforting her but there’s a dark undertone as he sings “So let’s have a smile/For an old engine driver,” making it clear what he expects from her. In movement five we get a western soundtrack as her husband makes his way home. He’ll “soon be home” he sings over a clip-clopping beat, the piece a short and almost comic interlude. This then leads us into the greatest part of the song and one of The Who’s most sublime moments in their whole recorded career. The chords clang as the band all sing “Dang” along with crunch of the guitar strings. This whole part is joyous, the backing vocals repeating “cello” because they couldn’t afford the backing orchestra. She is astounded to see her husband, and then she comes clean explains she did once sit on Ivor’s lap and even sat on his lap. We then get the magical moment as the band sing “You are forgiven” in a joyous choral call and response, chords hammering, the song rising and rising until the song crashes to an end. As it does the listener collapses with them, wasted and drained by the sheer power of the song.

This was the song that they performed on The Rolling Stones’ Rock n Roll Circus, scaring Jagger with their quality so much he shelved the show for years. It truly deserves to sit at the top of their magnificent body of work. I include the studio and the live version on my playlist.

Agree or disagree? Leave a comment!

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About me

I have a radio show, Single Minded, on Radio Alty, every week on Wednesday at 8pm (UK). Listen here:

https://www.radioalty.co.uk/

Older shows can be found here:

I have also written a book about the great singles of the 1960s which can be found on Amazon:

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [UK]

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [USA]

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [CAN and beyond!]

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When he left the band in 1970 he went on to form The First National Band with a fantastic collection of musicians. It’s likely that drummer John Ware or bass player John London took the first steps in forming the band, so it wasn’t Nesmith’s band in essence, although he became the principal songwriter. And although they were at each others’ throats by the third album, they left behind a remarkable body of music.

Magnetic South [1970]

Calico Girlfriend sets the scene: real cosmic American music. Shuffling chords open the track and the incredible pedal steel of Red Rhodes sings out through the song, bouncing along, with John London’s bass pinging and ringing as the track jerks and jumps.

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Nine Time Blue was an old Monkees demo, and a track they once performed on Johnny Cash’s TV show. Here it opens with the same country chords, but slowly adds neat percussion, pedal steel and a cute key change. It’s a wonderful song with a warm and rich melody. It segues into Little Red Rider, a funky country rock track built around London’s dense and cool bass line. It soars with an amazing chorus and is powered by some incredible musicianship, including the precise and careful drumming of John Ware.

The Crippled Lion is an exquisite country pop song. Nesmith’s vocal is marvellous, gliding high and full of warmth. Red Rhodes’ pedal steel is just right, adding sweet touches, especially at the end of each verse. It’s a classic piece of mature pop and should be more widely known.

On Joanne we get the country hit (the single just missed out on the top 20 and was the most successful solo single for any member of The Monkees), with a beautiful melody and lilting, floating lyrics. Nesmith sings with sadness and longing, and his voice is just perfect, creating amazing images as we are carried along by the music.

Side one ends with a brisk country rag written by Rhodes, First National Rag, a quasi-Looney Tunes melody with Nesmith asking us to turn the record over for side two as a nice comic conclusion.

Side two opens with the uptempo country groove of Mama Nantucket, a joyful country dance tune with an incredibly catchy chorus. It’s brisk and bouncy, Nez’s yodelling full of fun and Red Rhodes’ pedal steel swooping and swirling.

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The Keys to the Car is a traditional sounding barroom tune, wistful and pensive, a musical warning, full of weary experience. It is a brilliant piece of country music, so simple but so touching, and its dancing bass adds a cosmic magic to an already great song.

Hollywood fades into existence, a pulsing bass and hissing hi-hat locked together until it pops into a country rocker. Each chorus ends and goes back to the spares thudding beat, giving it a psychedelic feel and making it one of the tracks that elevate the album above contemporary country music of the time. It floats and expands, giving the song space for Rhodes to add a woozy, unique pedal solo.

We then get a pure and classic country waltz on the cover version of One Rose, singing a track reminiscent of the work Bob Dylan would be doing almost 40 years later. It’s a gentle country classic, Nesmith singing with easy abandon.

The album ends with another cover, as a barroom piano and a ticking clock leads us into his hypnotic version of the 1930s pop song Beyond the Blue Horizon. An alarm rings and he yawns awake, and we get some lovely acoustic guitar and weeping pedal. The song builds for almost three minutes before the vocals properly start, sounding more like a Hawaiian swing. When the track begins in earnest it’s touching and brittle, building with energy over the length of the song, a warm and perfect way to end the record.

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Loose Salute [1970]

The band’s second album came out just five months later and it is full of more wonderful country tunes by this great band.

The opening notes of Silver Moon ring out from Nesmith’s guitar and he sings on a great pop track, a calypso influence running through the energetic chorus, a bouncy piano line by Glen D Harding.

Their cover of Patsy Cline’s I Fall To Pieces is a sweet country classic, and Rhodes’ continues his work from the first album, adding exquisite touches of pedal steel to colour the track. It is brisk and bright, full of beauty and honesty.

Thanx for the Ride is the kind of solo country track that Nesmith excels at. His guitar is busy and expressive, and he sings the great melody with easy energy. It feels almost psychedelic in the middle, as Rhodes pedal steel solo seems to rain down, swirling around your ears before we return to the swaying chorus. Nesmith is in great voice on the track, his vocals processed, echoing and distant.

Dedicated Friend is a rocker, jerky rock and roll chords that circle round to a simple but catchy chorus line. It’s full of barroom energy, a choppy guitar that adds bending little licks from time to time, and Nesmith is almost preaching by the end.

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Nesmith took another unreleased Monkees’ track, Carlisle Wheeling, and renamed it Conversations. It’s a beautiful country ballad, with a plaintive melody that pleads and weeps. The song is built around a simple and expressive guitar line that keeps returning, and Nesmith sings with sweet emotion over the top. It’s one of his greatest solo songs, full of icy beauty.

It contrasts wonderfully with the opening track of side two. Tengo Amore opens with a strange, dancing percussion, reminding me of the sounds Talking Heads used in the 80s. It is hypnotic and mysterious, the drums coming in to pull a dancing beat together before the song swings into a uptempo Latin groove, Nesmith at first singing in Spanish with a flourish before he moves to English lyrics. It is another brilliant track, over too soon.

The first Monkees single that Nez sang on was 1969’s Listen to the Band. He returns to that song here, making it a jaunty arroom rocker. The song is quality, and this version is just another delightful flavour of it. It’s powered by Rhodes’ dancing pedal and Nesmith’s fabulous vocal performance.

Bye, Bye, Bye took weeks to record, allegedly, delaying the album’s release. It’s a country rocker, simple and straightforward, full of fun and energy, bouncing and swaying. I can imagine mid-70s Elvis putting out a great version of this track, with its comic and cool lyrics.

Lady of the Valley is a ringing groove, Nesmith’s yodelling vocals echoing and swirling over a simple guitar line. It snaps and twists and feels like it is about to burst into double time but it never does, dancing through different sounds as it moves.

The album ends with the percussive funky rock of Hello Lady. It’s a great ending to a great record, very different to what had come before. The riff rolls up and down the fretboard, the drums snap and snarl and the song soars. I love the revving bass over the drum break that is followed by the dramatic horns blasting out the melody. The track rolls to a jazzy conclusion bringing the album home in style.

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Nevada Fighter [1971]

Most of the album had already been recorded during 1970 before London and Ware left the band and Nesmith used bass player Joe Osborne and two members of Elvis touring band, James Burton (guitar) and Ronnie Tutt (drums) to finish the record. The album was not a success and led to Nesmith forming the Second National Band, a group where he had a greater say in the direction, but Nevada Fighter is still a great record, and a great place for the band to finish their time together.

The album is dedicated to “International-Harvester, makers of automatic reapers & other fine products…”

Side one is full of Nesmith compositions. The album opens with Grand Ennui, a bouncing bluesy pop tune with a great bass line. It does feel like the kind of thing you’d find buried on a late 60s Monkees record and it crackles with energy and fun.

Propinquity was an old Monkees demo that the band recorded in 1968. It has a gentle melody and some exquisite guitar lines. The album is still full of great pedal steel from Rhodes, and the harmonies on this track give it an extra sparkle as does the weaving and winding fiddle. It is full of warm beauty.

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Here I Am was one of the later tracks recorded. It has a spacious and dramatic feel, and Osborne’s bass pings and leaps behind the vocals. Nesmith uses a sweet falsetto at times, adding to the gentle warmth of the song. It’s a standard county ballad, propelled by great musicians that add just the right touches of flavour and colour.

Only Bound is another ballad, with a classic, standard feel, and tapping percussion. It’s a decent little country song, although it doesn’t match much of the work that the band released over the years. Nesmith is still is great voice, though, and I love the touch where it feels like it’s ended but the band come back for one final crack at a chorus.

The side ends with one final Nesmith original, Nevada Fighter, a rolling piano line and dancing guitar licks open up this fantastic song. It is just fabulous, the whole band locked in together on a perfect country rock track. The rolling guitar line is full of menace and cool, and the band’s voices are locked together in perfect harmonies. There’s an organ solo - probably Glen Hardin given the way the bluesy notes fall, although it could be Michael Cohen given that Hardin was known as a piano player. The track just blasts along, delightful. The liner notes tell us that the song is “dedicated to the Great People of the Navajo.”

Side two gives us some interesting cover versions. It opens with the wistful pop ballad, Texas Morning, simple and slight, with some silly lyrics, but it’s got a gentle country feel and the middle eight is quite lovely.

It fades into the clip-clop sounds of Tumbling Tumbleweeds, a cowboy standard from the 1930s. The songs is full of country history, and the band do it great justice, with delightful harmonies over the top of Rhodes’ sweetly weeping pedal steel. The song slowly comes to an end with some wonderful honky-tonk piano

I Looked Away had originally been released by Derek and the Dominos on their 1970 album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. The band do it justice, with Nesmith singing the great melody with power and emotion. It’s a country blues with a mature sound and some great guitar work.

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Rainmaker was written by Harry Nilsson and Bill Martin and appeared on Nilsson’s 1969 album Harry. This is a great performance of a lovely little narrative song as the people of Kansas try to take advantage of a “rainmaker” but he turns the tables on them, leaving them with almost endless rain. The tale is powered by great music, a fantastic melody and high quality musicianship.

The album ends with Red Rhodes’ René, cinematic and atmospheric, a soundtrack to western not yet made. The pedal steel cries and the guitar adds deep and dramatic notes. It fades into the sunset as it ends and the band faded from view.

Nesmith must be seen as one of the pioneers of 70s country rock, an equal to Gram Parsons and brings so much more than contemporaries like The Eagles. That he’d also been in one of the most effervescent bands of the 60s just adds to his charm.

The playlist: all three albums (with extras at the end)

Like what you read? Buy me a coffee!

About me

I have a radio show, Single Minded, on Radio Alty, every week on Wednesday at 8pm (UK). Listen here:

https://www.radioalty.co.uk/

Older shows can be found here:

I have also written a book about the great singles of the 1960s which can be found on Amazon:

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [UK]

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [USA]

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [CAN and beyond!]

Although 1995 was the year of Oasis vs Blur, with Pulp coming out as eventual winners in my view, The Modfather released a personal and powerful album that sounds even better now than it did when first released.

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This was his third album, and I had loved the previous two. His self-titled album from 1992 was full of slinky 60s influenced R&B which may have upset some fans hoping for more Jam or Style Council sounds but which sounded thrilling to me. He followed this up in 1993 with Wild Wood, a superb album, with the scintillating single Sunflower a highlight.

Weller’s music was reflecting his passions, full of touches of Small Faces, Humble Pie, Motown and Steve Winwood. It sounded retro, but individual, his voice gruff and powerful on all of his work.

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Weller grew up on Stanley Road, in Woking, and took the street name as the title of his next work. It felt like the culmination of the work he had been doing, pulling in all of his influences to create a coherent and magical whole. Even the covers demonstrate where Weller was at the time, the fascinating collage designed by Peter Blake, who helped create the cover of Sgt. Pepper almost 30 years earlier. There’s a pop art painting of a young Weller holding a photo of himself as the centrepiece of the record, and the record features images from his youth and his heroes, such as George Best and John Lennon. It tells us immediately that this record is looking back, to his youth in the 60s, to his influences, to his love of music

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Track by track

The Changingman

The record kicks off with a delightful ringing and descending riff, full of late 60s Traffic energy and a bouncing bass courtesy of Dr Robert of The Blow Monkeys. This has always been one of my favourites of his songs, the way the verses build to a gallop before that simple but cool chorus is wonderful, and Steve Craddock fires out a fantastic solo to cap it all off. It’s a perfect way to open the album, setting the scene for what is to come.

Porcelain Gods

Porcelain Gods opens with a deep, bending guitar riff, before Weller comes in with his best Steve Marriott voice and we get a bluesy rock track full of atmosphere and drama. Steve White’s drums are perfect, just enough flavour around the beat to drive the track on. Just over two minutes in and everything kicks on a step, moving into a short jam before we return to that cool, space rock riff.

I Walk On Gilded Splinters

This song was written by Dr John for a 1968 album, and Weller’s version sees Noel Gallagher playing acoustic guitar. Porcelain Gods segues into this track and the feel continues, enhanced by the wash of organ that Weller adds. It quickly slides into a funky R&B groove, with a buzzing, funky bass by Mark Nelson. Constantine Weir adds a “voodoo vocal” bolstering the New Orleans swamp rock feel. The track fits perfectly, a well chosen cover version executed exactly as it should be, the free form jam of the last minute dripping with funky blues.

You Do Something to Me

This top ten single is a beautiful pop ballad. The piano riff that opens feels almost immediately recognisable and, although it garnered criticism from some of the rockist critics of the time1, it demonstrated Weller’s ability to write with tender beauty. Don’t listen to those lumpen critics, this is one of his best songs since The Style Council.

Woodcutter’s Son

It’s a real hard rock riff that kicks off Woodcutter’s Son before Steve Winwood’s piano comes bouncing in. Weller recreates that cool, loose rock of the late 60s to perfection, the song sliding up and down the chords. The track features Carleen Anderson on backing vocals, deepening the soulful groove. The beat rumbles around the kit, shuffling and stylish.

Time Passes...

On Time Passes… we get a twist on a Rod Stewart/Faces blues ballad. Like much of the music on the record, it’s retro and wears its influences clearly without sounding like parody or pastiche. For much it the track swings between two chords, simple and cool, Weller’s voice hoarse and cracking as he sings with deep passion.

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Stanley Road

This is Weller’s attempt at a personal and nostalgic look back at his childhood, with opening lyrics that paint that picture well:

A hazy mist hung down the street
The length of it's mile
As far as my eye could see
The sky so wide, the houses tall
Or so they seemed to be
So they seemed to me so small

It fizzes around a smart piano riff and a deep incessant bass line from Yolanda Charles that repeats a note over and over. It’s a cool groove, soulful and driving with a neat hook. The break features a smart pair of guitar lines that intertwine and a cool Mini-Moog line.

Broken Stones

Throwing himself into a soul sound Weller recreates a late 60s Muscle Shoals groove on Broken Stones. The use of the Wurlitzer and Mick Talbot’s Fender Rhodes is perfect, adding a stylish feel to this excellent song. It’s the song that most resembles his Style Council sound and it is a beautiful blue-eyed soul track with a fabulous bass line from Mark Nelson.

Out of the Sinking

A harder rock sound starts off this track, a feel of early 70s bluesy pub rock running through it, but at the same time it points at the Britpop bands of the time as if to say, “This is how you do it!” Whilst it’s not the best song on the album by any stretch, it rocks and swings with plenty of energy and Weller is in great voice.

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Pink on White Walls

This song sees the return of Steve Winwood on piano, a bluesy and bouncy track that is effervescent and cool. It really works well, Weller’s lovely guitar stabs accentuating Winwood’s piano lines. The chorus is hopeful and dreamy:

Don’t waste your time
Don’t hesitate
Life is but a moment - you can’t wait

and the whole piece is a great little track, running at just over two and a half minutes, replete with a little whistling in the background.

Whirlpools’ End

The longest track on the album, Whirlpools’ End clocks in at over seven minutes. It opens with calm and bright acoustic guitar chords, and floats into life full of psychedelic mystery. It has a pop energy, with a typical solo-Weller sound. He does it really well here, once again building on a retro sound but making it feel contemporary. The lyrics are done by three and a half minutes, and it moves into a cool instrumental jam. The drums really hammer out an echoing beat before the guitars hit on a repetitive groove. At the five minute mark everything drops out and we get the pastoral acoustic grooves again, a short breather, then Weller fires out some superb guitar work. Some of it is Steve Craddock, and they duel guitar lines as the song gallops and swings to its space-rock end.

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Wings of Speed

The album finishes with the gospel piano of Wings of Speed, Weller himself on piano, brilliant. He’s writing a hit here, even though it was never released as a single. It’s a joyful sound, but deep and muddy too - it has the feel of Exile on Main St at times, and that is high praise indeed from me. Carleen Anderson adds some dramatic vocals and Weller rips his voice to pieces. It is a brilliant ending to a superb album.

Paul Weller continues to release great music, although I think Stanley Road is his last utterly fantastic record, from start to finish. He takes the music he loves and packages it up for his own sound perfectly. And today at 68 he still has the talent and the tenacity to keep writing incredible music.

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Like what you read? Buy me a coffee!

About me

I have a radio show, Single Minded, on Radio Alty, every week on Wednesday at 8pm (UK). Listen here:

https://www.radioalty.co.uk/

Older shows can be found here:

I have also written a book about the great singles of the 1960s which can be found on Amazon:

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [UK]

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [USA]

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [CAN and beyond!]

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The album opens with a cover of Fields of Joy, originally by the New York Rock Ensemble, his version uses his shaky falsetto and adds a Led Zep IV feel to the track which becomes remarkably catchy and full of hooks. Guns ‘n’ Roses guitartist Slash adds a one-take guitar solo that fits perfectly as the chords crunch and rise. The shift from folky sound to rock and back again sets out Kravitz’s ambitions for the album with clarity.

That ambition is developed further with the superb opening riff to Always on the Run. Co-written with Slash it has a mid-70s Funkadelic groove. As it circles around the lyrics are clumsy and naive, but the song has a superb funk-rock energy that never lets up.

Stand By My Woman sees Kravitz trying to write a mature soul ballad, led by reverb heavy piano, touches of Imagine-era Lennon in its sound. The track does not quite achieve what it aims for, not fully gelling, but it has some nice touches such as Henry Hirsch’s soulful organ work.

Kravitz is again striving for a different style on It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over, using a descending riff on strings to emulate a Philly Soul sound. His falsetto work well on this one, fitting in with the funk-tinged guitar work. His first top ten single (in the US), it brought him huge fame. Arguably it led to some of his poorer choices in his later career, but it is a sweet and dramatic soul song.

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His sense of experimentation still existed at this time, as can be heard in the echoing portent of More Than Anything In This World. Lyrically as clumsy as can be:

I’d walk through fire
Stand in the rain
I’ll go to hell and back
On a plane

but he is in great voice and the organ is used to fantastic effect. The whole song feels cavernous and deep.

The opening to The Difference is Why is woozy and psychedelic, as a phased, reverb-heavy guitar plays arpeggiated chords and the bass rolls around it. This is a great song, full of psychedelic soul, interesting and unique.

Side two opens with the funky rock riff of Stop Dragging Around. I used to love playing this on my guitar when I was younger (clearly almost 20!). It’s a slight song, but one that works well. The riff is cool, the beat pulls you in, and the chorus feels like you've already learned it within seconds. Great guitar solo too, by Kravitz himself.

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Flowers for Zoe, his gentle ballad for his daughter, has a lovely descending riff using a nice open high E string, but it is let down by his shaky falsetto, which pulls you away from whatever effect he is striving for.

It’s followed by the most interesting track on the record, a chugging, swirling, phase-heavy reprise of Fields of Joy, his voice, slowed and druggy. It gives the listener a disconcerting sense, making time, and the record, feel off-kilter and confusing.

Kravitz wrote All I Ever Wanted with Sean Ono Lennon and there is a sense of the piano sound from Plastic Ono Band on the track, intentional or not. It is a fairly successful rock ballad, but nothing special.

It is followed by When The Morning Turns to Night. An odd one. I had totally forgotten about it until this relisten. It is an effective attempt at a gospel ballad, with some excellent organ running through it. Although I’d forgotten it, it has held up well.

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He uses piano and a metronomic drum beat to good effect on What the …. Are We Saying? Perhaps trying to channel the more politically charged sound of the 70s, he creates a dramatic, soul-heavy rock ballad.

The album ends with a sparse solo acoustic guitar track, Butterfly. As ever with our Lenny, there’s a cynical sense of something like, “Oooh, I need a live-sounding acoustic track here, a bit like how Abbey Road finished with Her Majesty,” but it works well enough and he is in good voice.

I think that over the next few years his albums contained more and more weaker songs. more than good ones, and that this one was the last time the balance was the other way. My relisten gave me enjoyment that was more than just nostalgia.

Like what you read? Buy me a coffee!

About me

I have a radio show, Single Minded, on Radio Alty, every week on Wednesday at 8pm (UK). Listen here:

https://www.radioalty.co.uk/

Older shows can be found here:

I have also written a book about the great singles of the 1960s which can be found on Amazon:

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [UK]

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [USA]

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [CAN and beyond!]

Late 60s Detroit is a place that exists best in my imagination. I picture it as a city where it was normal to see the odd Motown star strolling into the studio at 2648 West Grand Boulevard and hear Berry Gordy's particular brand of driving soul pouring from every radio and car window. Obviously this is not the case, and Gordy himself felt that the Motor City had given him all that it could when he started the process of moving out to Los Angeles, but any place that births the music of Stevie Wonder, Funkadelic, Iggy Pop and the MC5 is going to be alright by me.

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So, of course, I picture myself studying at the University of Michigan and getting the opportunity to see these great bands (and maybe even Ted Nugent) in the flesh. Late 60s Parliament must have been a pretty incredible sight as George Clinton broke away from the Motown mould to get funkier, dirtier and nastier. And quite simply cool.

Clinton was on Revilot records, home of Darrell Banks and the wonderful Debonaires, among others. After a few non-hits for The Parliaments the label dropped Clinton. He later emerged on the Invictus label and by then Parliament had become as heavy a funk band as could be heard. Their sound was influenced by The Stooges and the MC5 as Clinton said in 2016: “Oh, we played with them all the time. ...We saw that Detroit had its own version of rock 'n' roll coming out. They influenced us a lot.”

As Clinton was twisting the Motown sound the MC5 were updating rock and roll, trying to play their own sonic versions of surf tunes and R&B classics, like James Brown's I Don't Mind. To my uneducated ears, their early tracks have the sound of The Who, and you can hear that even in 1966 they have a sharp, energetic crashing sound that has that wonderful cheap mid-60s production that makes drums sound like shoe-boxes and some sort of wood block knocking out little triplets.

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Kick Out the Jams

I first started listen to the MC5 by discovering their debut, live album, Kick Out the Jams. I think most people growing up in the late 80s who were trying to understand the history of punk music were led to Kick Out the Jams. Funnily enough, I wasn't too enamoured by the record. It was alright, which is good enough for me, but often seen as a criticism nowadays. I particularly liked Rocket Reducer and album opener Ramblin' Rose with it's declaration:
”Brothers and sisters, I wanna see a sea of hands out there. I want everybody to kick up some noise. I wanna hear some revolution... Brothers and sisters, the time has come for each and every one of you to decide whether you are going to be the problem or whether you are going to be the solution! You must choose, brothers, you must choose. It takes five seconds - five seconds of decision, five seconds to realise your purpose here on the planet. It takes five seconds to realise that it's time to move, it's time to get down with it! Brothers, it's time to testify. And I want to know - are you ready to testify? Are you ready? I give you a testimonial. The MC5!"

Back in the USA

The MC5's second album is called Back in the USA. It's a mixed bag for me, because their covers don't really work. Let's me be honest, I have never heard a version of Tutti Frutti that works, other than the original, of course, and on this one Rob Tyner's voice just cannot carry the song. The tracks the band write are all pretty good, and for me the stand out tracks are Call Me Animal, The American Ruse (this is what 3-chord garage rock should sound like) and The Human Being Lawnmower.

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But what I want to discuss is the third album as it heads towards its 55th birthday

High Time

Sister Anne

This blasts into existence with a deep opening chord, followed by a riff that leads into a great rock'n'roll groove that drops into that wonderful genre of songs that describe some mysterious woman, slowly giving us more and more information about “every man's saviour”. The harmonica (Rob Tyner) screams along after a superb 'Sonic' Smith solo. The song wails like a ramshackle gospel chorus stopping but not stopping, as the riff bursts out at the end, a choir of backing singers repeating "She's my Sister Anne" over a feedback driven collapse. Out of the crumbling collapse marches a band of trumpet, trombone, flugelhorn, tuba and bass drum.

Baby Won't Ya

This one snarls out of a riff that the rock bands of the mid to late seventies would have loved. It's clear that this album is less political than the earlier stuff, but for sheer entertainment it wins for me. The chorus of this one apes Dylan's Baby Let Me Follow You Down. The twin guitars of Fred Smith and Wayne Kramer twist around each other perfectly in the solo, building to the final verse and another run through the chorus. The song becomes choppier and choppier, with everyone fighting for space as the song slowly fades out.

Miss X

A Wayne Kramer piano riff, copied by the guitar leads out this anthemic track that Kramer himself wrote, which is an undiscovered mid-70s classic rock track. Actually it feels like very atypical MC5 stuff, and I can imagine any fans of the band from the early days feeling a bit let down by this one, which seems like a template for Guns 'n' Roses and a millions other radio friendly rock bands This could have easily been a hit, but it seems like no singles were released from this record.

Gotta Keep Movin'

Back in the land of garage rock and roll here, 3 chords Mouse and the Traps like groove, touching on the political in a simplistic way

Presidents, priests and old ladies too
They'll swear on the Bible
What's best for you
Atom bombs, Vietnam, missiles on the moon
And they wonder why their kids are shootin'
Drugs so soon

It sounds like it would be quite at home on one of the Nuggets sets and it wins with a delightful solo after 2 and a half minutes that then brings in the second guitar as they fight it out to the end over the top of Dennis Thompson's rolling drum fills.

Future/Now

With its bouncing, moody bass line this one feels more like it's rooted in the heavier supergroups like Cream and rather than being derivative it demonstrates how versatile the band were. And this track enjoys another monster drum pattern from Thompson, even if they are recorded to sound a bit dull.
The guitars dance left and right through the opening 3 minutes. A shout of “The key to the mystery” by Tyner brings everything to a calm stop. Reverb-heavy guitars play quiet little patterns into the more psychedelic section of the song. Tyner's voice clearly warping through a Leslie cabinet or some other processing as it washes in and out. All of this is designed to demonstrate the birth of a new future:

A strange new day for the people of the Earth
Traditions, burned away by the rising sun

It's a bit of a weak ending to a song that starts so well, and sounds like an unfinished idea of Tyner's to me.

Poison

A staccato riff pushes the band through another great rock track. The real star here is Michael Davis's bass that bounces under a track that sounds like it would not be out of place on one of the Norman Whitfield experimental soul-rock tracks for The Undisputed Truth. This has one of my favourite guitar solos on the record, blistering out of the speakers after a minute and a half. Tyner brings everything down quietly after that, which works more successfully than Future/Now because of how the anger returns with a final verse.

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Over and Over

The MC5 channeled The Who on this brilliant track. Electric and acoustic guitars vie for space after a neatly picked, wobbly opening and another bass riff from Davis. Tyner sings this well, setting out his frustrations with technology and revolution when views through the lens of real life where “the cat next door spends all his time trying to think up new antisocial crimes” and “I was working in a factory, over and over, just trying to make it satisfactory”. It's not a Springsteen like tale of working the factory floor but more like another of songwriter Smith's free association of rhyming ideas.

The cop on the street wants us down on our knees
The president says we’ve got to have peace

The whole thing works because it rocks it riffs so well and the Townsend-like clangs of the acoustic guitars drive the whole thing on incessantly.

Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)

Drums, drums and more drums. The "sonicly2 speaking" sounds thunder out at the start of this, Thompson's drums joined but an array of percussion for a good minute until Smith and Kramer hop on board with a great garage rock riff. It's more 3-chord stuff that the MC5 could do so well. This is the kind of music you can imagine just killing on stage. The drums rumble along non-stop and allow the rest of the band to open up properly. More dumb but fun lyrics carry the song along until out of nowhere a horn section appears, neatly bookending things after the horns of Sister Anne. These horns feel more free association, a touch of Albert Ayler's Music is the Healing Force of the Universe rather than the marching band sound. Funnily enough, Ayler started life off with a marching band sound which opened up to more freedom as time went by, and the horns on this album seem to do the same.

I haven't found any of this music on any bootlegs, even though the band continued to tour for a good year after this before breaking up in 1972. There were reunions (although all after Tyner had died) and I'm not a big fan of these things. According to wikipedia Wayne Kramer was leading some sort of "MC50" tour with him and a “rock stalwart” that surely no-one needs to see.

Like what you read? Buy me a coffee!

About me

I have a radio show, Single Minded, on Radio Alty, every week on Wednesday at 8pm (UK). Listen here:

https://www.radioalty.co.uk/

Older shows can be found here:

I have also written a book about the great singles of the 1960s which can be found on Amazon:

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [UK]

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [USA]

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [CAN and beyond!]

https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/george-clinton-lays-it-all-down/Content?oid=2441830

In 1975 the Vietnam War finally came to and end, although in the same part of the world the Khmer Rouge took control of Phnom Penh leading to the “killing fields” of the Cambodian genocide. Conflict was ever present in the world, a civil war took place in Angola as they fought for independence from Portugal, but at the same time there was positive change: Franco’s regime died with him, and Spain began the transition to democracy, and other countries such as Suriname, Mozambique and Papua New Guinea gained their independence.

In what makes for an interesting contrast to where we are now, the UK voted for EEC membership, with 67% support. Two important acts came into law, the Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay Acts, trying to bring some form of equality to the country, but at the same time unemployment exceeded 1 million and the IRA were still running a bombing campaign in England.

Some of rock’s greatest album were released this year, such as Blood on the Tracks, Wish You Were Here, Born to Run, Horses and Physical Graffiti. At the same time disco was on the rise, already deeply embedded in the clubs of the biggest cities and now becoming ever present on the charts.

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The top twenty-five

25: Fatback Band - (Are You Ready) Do the Bus Stop

The Bus Stop was a popular street dance in many US cities, and the Fatback band jumped on the popularity to release a funky proto-disco track. It is made by that deeply funky opening bass line that runs through the song, rumbling and grooving with cool. The horns have a Kool and the Gang feel to them, as the band chant out instructions to a song made for dancing.

24: Carl Malcolm - Fattie Bum Bum

A great hit of nostalgia on a song that clearly defines this list as personal favourite. Malcolm’s biggest hit was a cover, the original was by Alton Ellis, and it was a song I heard regularly growing up. It wouldn’t make many people’s lists but I love the ringing steel drums and the languid beat.

23: The Four Seasons - December, 1963 (Oh What a Night!)

Originally written about the repeal of Prohibition in December 1933, the band turned it into a cool love song, full fo disco energy using Judy Parker’s lyrics. A UK number one, it is buoyant and feels instantly recognisable. It features drummer Glen Polci singing, not Frankie Valli (although his voice is recognisable on the bridge). It’s a great example of a well polished disco groove.

22: Parliament - Chocolate City

In contrast, this is a skeletal and freaky funk groove, using census data to argue that over time the US would see Black Americans in political power. It is done through a slowly building groove that bursts into life during the funky “Gainin’ on ya!” chorus. Bernie Worrell throws out some cool piano and Bootsy holds the bass heavy and funky while Michael Brecker blasts a jazzy sax solo. Later in the year Parliament would put out some of their greatest work, building on this groove.

21: John Lennon - Stand By Me

Working with Phil Spector, Lennon recorded a number of his favourite rock and roll songs in 1974 and 75. This single, his last hit before he took up the life of house husband, staying at home and raising his son Sean, is a great version of the Ben E. King classic. Lennon had an incredible voice, seemingly coming from nowhere, and he uses it so well here, cracking and straining but full of love for the material. It is different to the original, and the shuffling guitar chords give it a raw, live feel.

20: Television - Little Johnny Jewel

Skeletal take on punk by the fabulous Television. It is post-punk before punk and a superb example of Art Rock. Tom Verlaine’s guitar weave and whines as the band snap out the chords. His voice is wild and weedy, but absolutely perfect. The two parts of the song formed the A and B sides of the single, which slows and accelerates at various stages of the track. Billy Ficca’s drumming is incredible, never showy but adventurous and exciting. This is what the best music of the late 70s sounded like.

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19: Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion

A very different band to Television, Aerosmith symbolised the excess of the hard rock world, with the Toxic Twins of Steven Tyler and Joe Perry at the forefront of it all. But on Sweet Emotion that create something mystic and magical. It opens with that chiming and ringing bassline from songwriter Tom Hamilton as Perry’s guitar talk box whispers “Sweet Emotion” over the top. The song opens into the chorus, funky and cool, before shifting into a sassy set of verses featuring some excellent drumming by Joey Kramer. It’s funky piece of hard rock, sounding like nothing else.

18: David Essex - Hold Me Close

More gentle and enjoyable pop magic from Essex, although his cheery, cockney smile would soon be nudged out by the rise of punk music, to my ears at least. This is a simple and perfectly written piece of pop music, his second number one in the UK, and it is made memorable by the whistling flutes of the musical motif, perhaps played on synths, I’m not sure. That doesn’t matter, it’s a great pop song.

17: Bruce Springsteen - Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

1975 saw the release of Springsteen massive Born to Run album. The second track on that album and the second single released from it was this funky little track that tells the story of the formation of the E Street Band. “I still have no idea what it means. But it’s important,” Springsteen said of the cool title. This is the classic E Street Band line up, and Roy Bittan’s piano dances delightfully throughout, adding clever notes behind the lyrics. Miami Steve Van Zandt created the horn arrangements for the song, filling it up with soul, and making it clear that this band were no ordinary rock group.

16: Funkadelic - Better By The Pound

I am hooked on the captivating wah-wah guitars that funk throughout this track, adding a snake-like groove to the tune. Eddie Hazel is in full control of his guitar here, and sings with Garry Shider on the song, who is in great voice. The song allows George Clinton to push his own vies on society, and how pleasure is not necessarily the be all and end all:

Feeling good is the bait, Satan uses to fish for you and me
Comfort is the poison when it's the spirit he wants to kill

By the end he is reminding us that being free is the most important thing one can achieve: he who is truly free, free from the need to be free.

15: ABBA - SOS

The Swedish band continued to put out stunning singles during 1975. This one has a drama filled and emotive opening, before a drum and guitar drive us into that fantastic chorus. I get a shiver down my spine when they sing “When you’re gone, how can I even try to go on…” moving the D♭ and E♭ up to the F chord. It is effervescent pure pop music, a top ten hit in seventeen countries.

14: The Walker Brothers - No Regrets

Their first new single for seven years came after Scott Walker felt that his solo career had totally derailed. He didn’t write any songs for the subsequent album, the band relying on a range of songwriters. No Regrets is a warm and powerful piece of country pop, and it is perfect for Scott’s deep, expressive voice. The strings dance and swoop behind the chorus, and the acoustic guitars ring and chime with beauty. It’s a sad and delicate song, written by Tom Rush, and it gave The Walker Brothers their last real chart success. Of course, they followed it up with some of Scott’s most remarkable songwriting. (Look out for a later article).

13: Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel - Make Me Smile (Come up and See Me)

This joyous piece of glam rock dances into life with a wonderful acoustic guitar riff before Harley sings with his best Dylan impression and the band throw in doo-wop style backing vocals. It’s lyrically dense but delightfully light and stunningly infectious. Jim Cregan plays an amazing acoustic guitar solo and the whole track feels like some amazing outtake from Abbey Road filtered kicked around by a platform shoe.

12: ABBA - Mamma Mia

The journey from a band I didn’t like as a child to one appearing twice in a single list is complete with this incredible pop song. Just from the clockwork opening I am hooked. Bjorn’s guitar wails and then the vocals leap in, charming and full of sweet energy. The “just one look” middle section is incredible, just full of captivating hooks. The song is a collection of superb parts that add to make a perfect whole. In fact, the chorus is the weakest part, and it is still great. I love how it seems to soar in the section after the chorus, pulling you in and getting you up out of your seat.

11: Roxy Music - Love Is The Drug

They were such a different band from the one that appeared in 1973, and Love is the Drug is a slinky, quasi-disco soul track, with a thudding, liquid bass and snapping guitar chords. Lyrically full of daft moments (“Late that night I parked my car/Staked my place in the singles bar” and “Lumber up, limbo down/The locked embrace, stumble round”) but it is a fabulous pop track, weaving like a snake in the undergrowth, the band as sharp as a knife and having a great time. I love it. You can guess the rest.

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The top ten

10: Simon & Garfunkel - My Little Town

This song saw Paul Simon working with Art Garfunkel for the first time since 1970, and the pair create a magical piece of music with a dark and bitter song about hating the little town where the narrator grew up. It opens with some descending piano notes and kicks into a shuffling beat with a cool affection. The pair sing like they always did, voices locked perfectly together, Garfunkel’s voice soaring high and Paul’s cool and relaxed. The song is complex and clever, feeling like a wistful look back at a childhood until you realise the song is full of bitter hatred to the town. There’s a romantic and soaring horn section that gives way for the incredible chorus: “Nothing but the dead and dying back in my little town”. It feels like such a mature and powerful idea for a song because of how it is executed. It’s not simplistic but poetic, dramatic and full fo soul.

9: AC/DC - It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock & Roll)

What an opening riff! Malcolm Young cranks out a simple but stunningly catchy groove on the A chord and then Angus comes in, rolling his riff over and over and the song is up and running. Bon Scott belts out his story of the horrors of being in a band as the group build up the funky rock until we get to the super chorus. It is a hard rock masterpiece, given an incredible extra boost by a growing and whining bagpipe solo by Scott. The pipes and the guitar have a call and response section before Angus starts to properly throw out an amazing guitar solo. I love the moment when everything dies down and Malcolm comes back in with that crunching groove, Phil Rudd’s drum thudding madly in the background. It is an angry blast of rock and roll energy that gallops to a sweaty fade.

8: David Bowie - Young Americans

Ever changing, 1975 saw Bowie’s “plastic soul” period and he kicked it off with this glamorous Philly soul groove, powered by David Sanborn’s cool saxophone. Singing about a newly-wed couple who don’t know if they really like each other, Bowie’s voice is at it’s very best, expressive and cool. He is supported by some delightful backing vocals, featuring a young Luther Vandross amongst them. Although it is a swinging seventies soul track, lyrically it feels very different, full of dark and strange cut up imagery, Bowie juxtaposing the soul sound with his intelligent writing. The track seems to build with energy as it approaches the close, Bowie getting more exasperated and wild, his voice breathy and leaping. An amazing creation.

7: Roxy Music - Both Ends Burning

Inspired by the stress that the band were feelgin as they recorded their Siren album, this song is a hypnotic piece of soulful pop, featuring one of Bryan Ferry’s best vocals. Musically it looks towards the metronomic groove of disco, whilst swirling synth sounds jousting with stabs of piano, a liquid guitar groove and Andrew Mackay’s soaring saxophone. It twists and swirls, soudnign at time like the kind of new wave pop groove that the band would subsequently inspire in others. It is baroque and at times decadent, like all good pop music.

6: Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Don’t Cry No Tears

In complete contrast, this superb single is as unfussy and as direct as can be. The opening riff is quite marvellous, the twin guitars of Young and Frank Sampedro clanging out the chords, a metallic country sound that is slick and sharp. Young’s thin voice is perfect, full of sweet drama, broken and battered. It’s a set of simple chords, but as ever, Crazy Horse propel the track into another space, their gentle harmonising vocals juxtaposing with the pre-grunge guitar sounds. If I was in a band we’d cover this every night. (Badly).

5: The Rolling Stones - I Don’t Know Why (Aka Don’t Know Why I Love You)

This piece of soulful rock was recorded in 1969 on the day Brian Jones died. It is a cover of a lesser known Stevie Wonder song, and it feels ramshackle, like it could collapse at any moment. But it doesn’t. It weaves and twists and the guitars ring out Keith plays an incendiary guitar solo that Mick Taylor copies note for note a few verse later - his parts were overdubbed just before the track was finally released in 1975. The track just never stops for breath, battered and bruised, bobbing and weaving like a punch drunk fighter showing why this band could easily be the best band in the world when they wanted too.

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4: Kraftwerk - Autobahn

A ground-breaking piece of electronic music, it sounds like nothing else on this list. Trying to capture the feel of driving on the motorway, the album track was 22 minutes long, and it was sliced down to four and a half for this elegant single release. The band sing in German throughout, the synths dancing behind Ralf Hütter’s “Fahren Fahren Fahren” and it sounds alien and unique. The later part sees drum machine groove pulse, beat and shuffle, as cars horns wail and squawk. It feels wrong that such a simple song should be so good, but I am captivated by it every time I listen, the pure essence of electronic music.

The top three

3: Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner (Once)

Of all the versions of this song, this is my favourite. Roadrunner (Once) is powered by acoustic guitar chords, and there’s not a single keyboard in sight. It pulses with a robotic, head nodding beat, mainly just dancing around two chords, A and D, as Richman tells of his love of the radio, and of riding in his car listening to rocka nd roll music. The Modern Lovers sing their parts with a sassy loucheness as Richman’s almost nasal voice tells its tale. This is, to me, the essence of perfect punk: simple, yet full of spiky energy, doing exactly what it wants to without fear of criticism.

2: Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run

Springsteen’s behemoth of a huit single, a song he’s probably played in every concert since it was released. It’s a song that he felt had been written before, as it drips with Spector-like echoes and energies, exploding out of the stereo from the first drum beat. Springsteen screams the song, blasting out that incredible chorus as his guitar rings and bends behind him. It’s a complex tune disguised as a straightforward rocker, but nothing else sounds like it does. The Boss smiles with cool power throughout the track, and Clarence Clemons throws out a Stax soul sax solo before a dreamy middle section they gets us ready for the famous “1 2 3 4” cry that leads us into the final verse. The lyrics are full of cliches, none of which sound like cliches because the track is quite simply perfect rock music, made to sing along with, made to raise your hand to, made to love forever.

1: Donna Summer - Love To Love You Baby

Perhaps a surprising choice for my number one, but I cannot get enough of this sexually charged slice of Euro-disco, full of funky goodness and breathy magic. Donna Summer felt embarrassed at first, hoping she was recording a demo before produced Giorgio Moroder convinced her to release it as a single herself. Summer groans with sexual ecstasy throughout the song, and it sounds delightfully cool, amazingly authentic, and just perfect for the swinging fuck groove that play on. The album version stretched the idea out to 16 minutes, and I love every one of them, but the 5 minutes of the single version are enough. It so much more than the sum of its part, one of the coolest pieces of music very released.

Agree or disagree? Leave a comment!

Like what you read? Buy me a coffee!

About me

I have a radio show, Single Minded, on Radio Alty, every week on Wednesday at 8pm (UK). Listen here:

https://www.radioalty.co.uk/

Older shows can be found here:

I have also written a book about the great singles of the 1960s which can be found on Amazon:

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [UK]

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [USA]

• The Greatest Singles of the Sixties: A personal journey through music [CAN and beyond!]

The album opens with the stunning Bop Gun (Endangered Species), a cool guitar riff squirting out before we burst into an incredibly funky track. It is just perfect from start to end. The “Bop Gun” is used to help funk defeat the Placebo Syndrome of disco and was always used to cool effect in concert. Bootsy’s bass is superb, popping and pinging with dirty energy, almost alien sounding. “I gotta get over the hump, “ they chant, cool as hell.

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On Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk (Pay Attention) we get an opening, soulless missive from Sir Nose himself: “I will never dance!” before Starchild (ie Clinton) returns from the Mothership Connection and we have a funky montage of nursery rhymes. He raps with dark style, the slinky beat a deep funk cut. The track …

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The tri-fold record sleeve is a delight, featuring a fantastic photo of Stevie as well as lyrics. As Stevie liked to do at the time, there is some braille text which Wikipedia explains

⠄⠁⠃⠧ ⠯ ⠔⠎⠊⠙⠑ ⠮ ⠑⠍⠃⠕⠎⠎⠫ ⠎⠟⠥⠜⠑ ⠊⠎ ⠮ ⠳⠞⠇⠔⠑ ⠷ ⠁ ⠋⠇⠪⠻ ⠾ ⠧⠑⠔⠫ ⠇⠂⠧⠑⠎⠲
⠠⠌⠑⠧⠊⠑ ⠠⠺⠕⠝⠙⠻⠄⠎ ⠄⠚⠳⠗⠝⠑⠽ ⠄⠐⠹ ⠠⠮ ⠠⠎⠑⠉⠗⠑⠞ ⠠⠇⠊⠋⠑ ⠷ ⠠⠰⠏⠇⠁⠝⠞⠎⠲
”Above and inside the embossed square is the outline of a flower with veined leaves. Stevie Wonder's Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants.”

At times it is ambient and hypnotic, opening with the deeply portentous synth notes of Earth’s Creation, sounds swirling like the inchoate storms as the planet formed. The First Garden sways delicately, sur…

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After visiting a fascinating exhibition of Bob Dylan’s artwork at Castle Fine Art in Manchester I decided to finish off an article that had been bubbling around my head for months on end. Both his artwork and this album demonstrate Dylan’s ability to reflect tradition through his modern sound. Both are quite fantastic.

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Coming after his so-called “comeback album” Time Out of Mind and the brilliant blues album Love and Theft, Modern Times was a much anticipated 2006 album, a record that delves and digs into, and also steals, from traditional blues, folk and country.

It opens with Thunder on the Mountain a jaunty rock and roll track full of clever rhymes. The track references Alicia Keys, Hell’s Kitchen, the art of love and the love of god, all over a metallic rockabilly groove full of Chuck Berry licks. The song is flooded with Dylan’s magical imagery and kicks the record off with style.

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I have always been clear about my favourite period of their music, basically the time when Mick Taylor was in the band with a little before and after, and you will see that reflected in my choices.

But what choices! I think it is fair to say that at their best they are neck and neck with the very best bands in history, and this collection shows their versatility and their breadth. It is a shame they couldn’t prolong the magic after the middle of the seventies and onwards. I’m sure you’ll disagree in the comments.

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My twenty-five favourite songs by the Stones

25: Who’s Driving Your Plane?

The B-side to Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadows? This is also a “question mark” of a song, and it is a thundering and clan…

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In 1974 the world saw the final moment in the ongoing Watergate saga as Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency, a seismic moment for democracy and the rule of law and as the oil crisis put the world into jeopardy there were other huge political moments taking place. Haile Selassie was deposed in Ethiopia by a military junta that then ruled the country for the next seventeen years and a military coup in Portugal called the Carnation Revolution led to the overthrow of the Estado Novo regime.

The Three-Day Week in the UK was introduced to conserve what had become scarce electricity resource following a series of strikes. The year would see a hung parliament followed by a Labour victory deposing the then Conservative government. The mainland saw increased activi…

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Forty years ago today Run DMC released one of the most important and influential rap albums of all time. I had it on cassette, and listened on my little Alba cassette player whenever I could. I can remember every sound even 40 years on.

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Their third album, it was the first Platinum and multi-Platinum rap record and it signalled a sea change in rap music, blowing away everything that came before it. It forged a remarkable crossover with rock music, bringing in guitars to join with Jam Master Jay’s incredible DJ work and the stunning drum machine beats and it influenced a plethora of rap artists over the next few years.

Describing the recording process DMC said, “We did that album in like three months. It was so quick because every rhyme was written on the road and had been practiced and polished. We knew what we wanted to do. Rick was all music and instruments. Jay was music and DJing. And me and Run was lyrics. We definitely had a game plan”.

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This record proved that …

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I don't usually write about the gigs I go to, but on Wednesday Florry rocked up such a storm in Manchester I had to let my readers know.

Florry are a wonderfully cool five piece rock band from Philadelphia, full of the Southern influenced sound of people like early 70s Neil Young. The guitars crunch, but at the same time the fiddle sings and the pedal steel weeps with sorrowful beauty.

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The YES Basement in Manchester is a snug and intimate venue, and the band filled the hall with their brilliant sound.

The show opened with local folk artist Dee Rae. I loved how the band had found a Manchester artist to open for them, and Dee Rae played delicate and plaintive folk music with talent and charm, filling the gaps with sweet humour. It was a warm and delightful start. Her fingerpicking style was graceful, her voice calm and strong, and she was a delight to hear, warming us up well.

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I saw him in concert promoting this first album and the show was brilliant, a small club in Manchester allowed him to fill the room with positivity and love. Even as he cranked up the guitars on the second album I saw him live at Manchester Apollo and he was excellent.

I’m going to look at his first album here and will look at the second in a follow up article.

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Let Love Rule (1989)

Side one

It opens with an acoustic guitar playing some simple chords as Kravitz starts to sing, his voice breaking at one point. On Sitting On Top of the World the band - virtually all Kravitz himself - come in an…

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Like much of the world’s greatest art, this song communicates on two levels. It is a swirling, woozy, 80s ska track, full of echoing grooves that are easy to dance to. But at the same time it is a challenge to the political system, a cry of honesty about the state of the country.

The band were from Coventry, a small city in the Midlands, and there was a huge impact on the manufacturing industry of that city in the late 70s and early 80s as Thatcherism destroyed the country. The band would have seen this first hand, on a daily basis. There’s an old saying in England: if someone is “Sent to Coventry” it means that are ostracised and ignored. In the early 80s that would have been the least of someone’s worries if sent to Coventry.

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In 1976 Parliament released the magnificent album The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein featuring some of the best funk musicians of the time, including Bernie Worrell, Bootsy Collins and Fred Wesley and the Horny Horns, having recently left James Brown’s band.

The Cover

Clinton is in full Dr Funkenstein garb giving life to one of his many clones, as delightfully deranged as it can be, full of vibrant colour, the electric bolt of the band’s name blazoned across the top. I want to know more about what’s going on here…

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Side one

Prelude gives us a blast of church organ and some spooky backwards voices soon become a deep narrative on how funk was originally buried be…

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Heaven 17 took that emerging electronic sound and began to blend it with disco, funk and even punk grooves. The outcome was their stunning debut album Penthouse and Pavement, rele…

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1973 had two moments that would be in the middle of huge historical change in decades to come. In April in the US, the World Trade Centre opened, and the Twin Towers stood as an emblem of New York City until they were destroyed in the devastating attack of 2001. This attack triggered the “War on Terror” and profoundly altered America’s relationship with the Middle East, intensifying long-standing tensions and reshaping global geopolitics for a generation.

On January 1st 1973 the UK joined the European Economic Community, which over time became the EU. The country enjoyed the benefits of close working ties with the countries of Europe until the Brexit vote to leave the EU in 2016, officially leaving in 2020. The ramifications of this are still being felt in the …

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“I asked Prince what he planned to do. He told me, ‘I’m going to look for the ladder.’ So I asked him what that meant. All he said was, ‘Sometimes it snows in April.’” Steve Fargnoli, Prince’s manager.

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