Something will go here one day soon...Gaiety, merriment and dancing, etc.

badger_badge

Regular visitors here will have noticed the refurbishment is taking longer than expected.  This is mainly due to me getting very hooked on tracing my family history, which seems to have more skeletons than a medieval plague pit, and as many black sheep as a farm with several black sheep. 

Read about it here.

Music


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Overview - Hep to the Jive!!!!

This is just really a nostalgic ramble through the aural windmills of my mind... My musical taste, or lack thereof, expands daily, eclectically.  I have not even mentioned Gene Autry yet.  Music is for listening to, not writing about. However, since March 2007 I have tried to make this section more interactive by adding links to selections by the relevant artist.

Firstly, my tribute to the work of Buchanan & Goodman, recorded 25 years ago from vinyl and onto an old cassette player...

Fave hot wax - Albums

I decided in October 2006 to set criteria for what defines an album that is allowed to be in my Top Ten Thirteen. I decided to exclude greatest hits albums, and various artists compilations. That means that they must be a collection of songs which a group or artist decided to release at one particular time, as a new offering, that had not previously been available in that form. So here we go, not yet in any particular order.

 

  • Original Broadway Cast - West Side Story
  • Original Cast - Joseph & the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat
  • Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
  • Big Bopper - Chantilly Lace 

 

For me The Bopper was one of the under-rated greats of all time. The one excellent album showed such promise, such wit, such musical innovation. The humour in his voice in just about every song is wonderful, and yet all most people know him for is Chantilly Lace, although his larger than life personality really comes out, right from the first Heeeelllloooo Baaabbbbby!. The laugh-a-minute scariness of Preacher and the Bear is wonderful. The steady rolling along of Walking through my Dreams is perfect. Whoever played sax (was it him?) on his records deserves immortality. His son apparently still performs his father's stage act.

  • Crazy Cavan and the Rhythm Rockers - Crazy Rhythm
  • The Million Dollar Quartet recordings - Elvis, with Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins

 

 

 

 

 

  • Hank Williams - Moanin the Blues
  • Zombies - The Odessey and The Oracle
  • Paul Simon - Graceland
  • Sex Pistols - Never Mind
  • Billy Fury - Sound of Fury
  • David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
  • Phil Spector & Artists - A Christmas Gift For You

Others that I like

Any compilation of Sun country rock stuff.

 

Any Joe Meek stuff

 

Fave hot wax - Singles/Album tracks

This is impossible for anyone as it must be constantly changing, but over the years my all-time winner is

Red Cadillac and a Black Moustache - Warren Smith on Sun

She Loves You - Beatles

Vince Taylor and the Playboys - Brand New Cadillac

Most wanted record

"My Happiness”, a home recording by Elvis Presley as a gift for his mother. Only one copy ever existed.

Greatest personal musical achievements

This is where I get to mention that I have stood on the stage of the Ryman Auditorium. If you have never heard of it I will not explain as you would not be impressed anyway.

I've also met Sam Philips, below, with Peter Guralnick, right. If you have never heard of him I wwill not explain as you still would not be impressed anyway.

I am often asked where is the best place for getting hold of such-and-such a record.  ˜Keep looking” is the best advice. I look through vast amounts of utter rubbish, but am often rewarded with some Rough Diamond or Long-Lost Gem.  Try Archive Records one of the best collectors records shops around.  Say hi to Stompin Steve.

He sells everything from 78s, 45s, LPs, CDs, books, magazines, pop memorabilia, posters¦

I started this web site in about 1998.  As of Autumn 2016 it is getting its biggest ever refurbishment. 

My goals are to include more current information, more pictures, no dead links, consistent format and typeface, better readability on more screens, and to get rid of characters that display badly.  But no free beer.

It is a bit untidy and experimental ...but just wait...

Text first, then pictures to be replaced.