So, what have you been listening to lately?

[Dave W]

Mia Zapata, another light gone way too soon. Her murder went unsolved for years but they finally got the bastard.

[uwe]

Eddie Jobson's Zinc/"Green Album" - gotta do something for my PROG credentials. I didn't even know he could sing (bit too Jon Anderson'esque for my taste, but still).

[westen44]

Cozy Powell, Jack Bruce, Max Middleton, Clem Clempson

[Pekka]

Eddie Jobson's Zinc/"Green Album" - gotta do something for my PROG credentials. I didn't even know he could sing (bit too Jon Anderson'esque for my taste, but still).

It's his voice and singing style that put me off this album every time I try it again. He can sing but it's somehow annoying. A shame really, it's a pretty good sequel to his UK stuff and Jethro Tull's "A".

Jobbo is still a mighty fine singer when compared to Steve Howe. Yesterday I listened "Beginnings" for the first time and probably for the last too. Ouch. He should've stuck to background vocals and hire a Graham Nash or Roger Hodgson.

[gearHed289]

Eddie Jobson's Zinc/"Green Album" - gotta do something for my PROG credentials. I didn't even know he could sing (bit too Jon Anderson'esque for my taste, but still).

Loved that album. It's very dated sounding now, but still... I was impressed with his singing, especially for a "first time", but I get how it could be a turn-off. Wish there had been a follow up. The next one was on new age label Private Music, then he went off to soundtrack land and UK revivals.

[Basvarken]

Been listening a lot (again) to Del Amitri lately. I have their CDs in my car and just don't feel like putting any other bands on, because the Dels were so incredibly good.

[Granny Gremlin]

OMG, "Fan Club" was the first British punk single I ever heard (on the radio), up to then I had only heard and bought The Ramones debut. The Sex Pistols were all over the (English music) papers at that time, but you never got to hear any music from them because notoriety was more important to McLaren than his proteges actually putting something down on vinyl. So I actually heard music by The Damned and The Clash before I finally got to hear Never Mind The Bollocks.

And I remember thinking when I heard that Damned song that Joey Ramone was "somehow the more melodic singer" - no doubt my nasty BOF instincts at work failing to recognize true art!  Vanian was a wonderfully English vaudeville character though. I loved what he did years later to Barry Ryan. And he could sing by then too.



Another thing I remember from the very early Damned was Rat Scabies' (drummer, great name!) snappy answer to an NME scribe questioning his street credibility why he had only a rubber rat and not a real dead one dangling from his drum kit: "A real rat would smell too much. You'd need to change it all the time." 

That first damned record still holds up IMHO.  That is a great Scabies story, though - not sure if I ever heard it before.  Sorry, but later Damned just got a little bland for me - it wasn't the same without Captain Sensible.  Also their first guitarist was really good.

Yeah, Ramones were more melodic - their influences after all (Do you remember Hullabaloo, Upbeat, Shinding and Ed Sullivan too? Do you remember rock'n'roll radio?) included Motown as well as Soul.  I love Dave's vocals in the early days and would argue that he had the sense to not try to do what he could not do well, whereas Joey just decided doing it badly was his thing (and I liked that too; I mean, he wasn't half as bad as Mick Jones on later Big Audio Dynamite records - some of that I can't even begin to be an apologist for).  Vanian always had the more powerful voice and I suspect he could have sung better than that even in the early days, but that wasn't what he was going for.

I am a little surprised that Gila Copter didn't bait you into any comments about Timmothy Leary.

[Dave W]

90s UK time.

[Stjofön Big]

Love the drumming on this one. Guess it's Hal Blaine? So much energy, I almost start jumping when out walkin with this in my ears. And it's very seldom wrong with a 12-stringer!

[Rob]

my favorite Byrds tune.
I think that I saw Hal interviewed on you tube once and he mentioned it.

[Darrol]

https://www.youtube.com/embed/qM7iLbFXQF8

[patman]

We still play "Feel a Whole Lot Better"...

[uwe]

Cozy Powell, Jack Bruce, Max Middleton, Clem Clempson

You forgot Don Airey! Tsk, tsk, tsk ... The way that keyboarder moved and played on the right, I immediately thought that it is a young Don Airey. Middleton is at the left sitting with the hat and playing electric piano.

Cozy was always more fun to watch as a drummer than actually hear (bit heavy-handed for my taste). He excelled at those fast shuffles - it got him the job with Rainbow because he played a fast shuffle at his audition for more than half an hour without ever tiring or slowing down, all other drummers had given up by then.

That said, this particular song I always thought to be more than a bit "Cozy Cobham", like all 70ies drummers he must have listened Spectrum - Cobham's solo debut - to death.

[westen44]

I was mostly focusing on the second song.  Also, I was trying to be brief.  Originally, I just listed Cozy and Jack.  Then I realized I had to include Max Middleton since he was the composer of "The Loner."  After that I added Clempson.  If you look at the "Over the Top" album as a whole, Airey's contribution is notable, since there are only 7 songs but he was the writer or co-writer of 3 of them.  Plus, he played keyboards, of course, on 6 of the songs.

[Dave W]

https://www.youtube.com/embed/qM7iLbFXQF8

Darrol! Where have you been?

I like that tune.