Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod the Mod finds his solo footing, headed for stardom, with the Faces in his wake.
6:00 AM GMT 22/06/2011
Features Disc of the day
John Phllips
John the Wolfking Of L.A.
(Dunhill, 1970)
Mamas & The Papas’ nabob explores the murky side of his California dream…
Here in the UK the days have turned cold, the nights are drawing in and the season is ripe for the sonic warmth and psychic chill of Papa John’s solo debut. The evangelist of the a free and easy life under vibrant, Californian skies, by 1969 Phillips had found himself at the centre of a new, dangerous vortex, propelled by high-grade pharmaceuticals and an assortment of LA nasties. Written within the confines of his cavernous Bel Air mansion – frequented by The Manson Family barely two years before – Wolfking would become one of the first albums to sift through the shards of the hippie ideal and look into the cold, black eyes of what lay in wait – namely, Drum’s junkie scum on the prowl (“Some robbers they don't need no knives or guns babe / They come get you where you are / Somebody's come and stole my blackbird drum, baby / You know they took them from my car”). Doors are locked, curtains closed and a sense of foreboding lurks beneath the searching pedal-steel, lulling acoustic guitars, soulful harmonies and church-tinged pianos, and the album’s defining moment – a confession of surrender from this high priest of the US counter-culture – arrives amid the gentle folk wanderings of Topanga Canyon: “Oh Mary, I'm in deep waters / And it's way, way over my head / Everyone thought I was smarter / Than to be this dead”. The burnt-out languor of the ’70s singer-songwriter wave starts here.
Ross Bennett
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 20/11/2008
Further Listening
Love - The Blue Thumb Recordings (Hip-O-Select/Universal, 2007)
The Mamas And The Papas – If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears (Dunhill, 1966)
Gram Parsons – Grievous Angel (Reprise, 1974)
Previous Disc of the day
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Earl Brutus - Larky
Last salvo of Ginsters Pasty-Warholism from Britpop ramraiders.
12:04 PM GMT 08/06/2011
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Loudon Wainwright - T-Shirt
An overlooked small wonder from an unpredictable career.
6:00 AM GMT 03/06/2011
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Landscape - From The Tea-rooms Of Mars… To The Hell-holes Of Uranus
Dry computer club Futurists, upon hitting implausible chart paydirt.
6:00 AM GMT 17/05/2011
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Causa Sui - Summer Sessions Vol 1-3
Epic Danish jams, for when the neighbours get you down.
6:00 AM GMT 12/05/2011
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Comments
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A pedant writes. Isn't he singing about his black Pearl drums? Pearl being drum makers.
Posted by Wang Chung at 4:44 PM GMT 20/11/2008 Report Abuse
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Never could get into this album, even before I heard all the stuff about his debauched personal life. Give me Jackson Browne and a hundred others as singer songwriters before this guy.
But I'll force myself to listen to it again. I've got a copy of it somewhere.
Meanwhile, if anyone's interested about L.A. in those days dig up Ed Sanders' book about Manson, The Family I think it was called. The Wolf King comes off as a jerk and over his head in that milieu of crazy killers. And yes, Sanders is the same East Village poet/Fugs songwriter Ed Sanders. And for music of that era of that vicinity try Love's da Capo, Forever Changes and Four Sail.
Did you know that Gary Beausoliel, a Manson protegee now doing life for a murder on Satan Himself's behalf, once auditioned for Arthur Lee's band?
Posted by Bob In Pacifica, California at 7:38 PM GMT 24/09/2010 Report Abuse
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