Music
Everyone my age must have grown up with Peter Wyngarde’s two TV shows – Department S and Jason King. Few have heard his only album.
It’s funny to recall how much I hated disco at the time because this is another of those songs that just puts a smile on your face the minute you hear it.
Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson is the forgotten guitar legend of rock’n’roll. Perhaps he was just too far ahead of his time. This is simply extraordinary.
The Amen Break is the much-sampled drum loop that spawned a thousand tunes and kick-started drum & bass. Here’s the song that started it.
Kool & The Gang – Who’s Gonna Take The Weight (Parts 1 & 2)
16th November 2021 · 1970s, 1971, Funk, MusicHere’s a confession. I only really knew Kool & The Gang for their party tunes and schmaltzy ballads in the Eighties.
Nothing puts a smile on the face and gets the feet moving like Highlife music. So, to celebrate a century of recorded Ghanaian highlife, here’s a prime example by the late legend Atakora Manu.
Seventies singer-songwriter Kevin Coyne deserves to be celebrated as one of British music’s cult icons as much as the likes of Nick Drake and Syd Barrett.
Lefty Frizzell – If You’ve Got The Money (I’ve Got The Time)
12th November 2021 · 1950, 1950s, Country, MusicTerence Wilson, universally known as Astro, was the percussionist and part-time toaster in UB40, the unfairly maligned kings of UK reggae.
Ernest Tubb once remarked that whenever one of his songs came on a jukebox, men in bars would turn to their girlfriends and say: “Heck, I can sing better than that.” And, agreed Ernest, “They’d be right.”