This is forty years old this year, which means it’s as far removed from our time as Louis Armstrong’s classic recordings were from its time. Don’t know whether it’s the musicians, the instruments or something in the water - you couldn’t capture this noise tomorrow. Couldn’t be done.
Bob Dylan is brilliant. He also pinches.
Was this Bob Dylan’s strangest look?
A whole box of copies of The Modern Lovers “Egyptian Reggae”.
Still a classic in every sense.
The shabbiness of the Public Image single was carefully replicated by smart designers in Soho. The first Undertones single wasn’t.
Amazing to recall the trouble that went into the packaging of singles like the first one by Public Image. An entire edition of an invented tabloid was printed up and folded into each one.
At the top you can see the original “over-sticker” from the second Jesse Winchester album. Below is a pic Mark Ellen sent me of a faux sticker which is part of the packaging of a new Nick Drake box set.
I bought four Wendy Waldman albums in the mid-70s. Those were the days when I got just about everything on Warners. She wrote a couple of songs for Maria Muldaur and this album got a rave review in Rolling Stone. It’s only just come to my attention that Robert Smith recorded a cover of “PIrate Ships”, which is the best song on this record. Which gives me an excuse to trot out my favourite quote, from Joseph Shabalala: “music is a thing you cannot hinder - it rises from here all the way to heaven.”
