Happy Valentine’s – going back in time to ’69 with what many regarded as a decidedly dirty little ditty back then. Taking the boudoir to the studio, Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg with the once scandalous, now somewhat quaint ‘Je T’aime… Moi Non Plus’: […]
This recently discovered footage of an American housewife being filmed in 1956 during an experimental LSD session got me thinking about a couple of other classic trip clips.
One of my favourite things about Christmas is that it provides the opportunity for me to give an annual listen or two to what some would regard as Pop’s first concept album – the seasonal masterpiece, ‘A Christmas Gift For You’ (aka ‘Phil Spector’s Christmas Album’) issued on Spector’s Philles label, which was originally released at the height of the seminal producer’s powers (although, inauspiciously, on the very day JFK was assassinated – November 22nd 1963). […]
John Lennon would have been 70 years old today. […]
This Sunday (Oct 3rd), at 9pm, you’re invited to share a listening session with some likeminded souls, wherever you might be. This can be experienced either alone or communally, and you don’t need to leave the comfort of your own home to participate.
The following day I was back in Liverpool city centre, again with my son, when I saw the bus parked up outside the Royal Court Theatre, where Kesey had performed the previous night. I still had a camera with me from the previous day and began to take a few more shots of the bus. I noticed Kesey stood at the stage door and he recognised us. One of the younger Pranksters was with him and he asked if I’d like him to take a picture of the three of us together, and that’s how the photo above came about.
This brilliant animation enhances these words of wisdom. John Lennon interviewed by 14 year old Jerry Levitan in Toronto (1969).
More than interested to recently hear that Liam Gallagher has acquired the rights to one of my favourite Beatles related books, ‘The Longest Cocktail Party’ (1972), and plans to make it into a film. Told from the perspective of ‘house hippy’ Richard DiLello, this wonderfully entertaining memoir aptly describes itself as ‘An insiders diary of The Beatles, their million-dollar Apple Empire, and its wild rise and fall’. What really sets it apart is that the books central character is neither John, Paul, George or Ringo, but Derek Taylor, the bands press officer who, alongside fellow Liverpudlians Brian Epstein, Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans, played key supporting roles as part of the Beatle inner-circle.
Since we listened to Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ album, to launch Living To Music, I’ve found myself thinking about his ‘perfect partner’, Tammi Terrell, and the tragedy of her early death in 1970, aged just 24. Terrell, of course, will always be remembered for recording some classic Motown tracks with Gaye, including ‘You’re All I Need To Get By’, ‘Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing’ and, of course, the standard for all boy / girl duets , ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’.
Almost halfway through this series of two hour selections, which will culminate in a full twenty-four hours of music from the 60’s through to the mid-70’s and is all about my love affair with the 7” single, which I grew up with in my pre-DJ youth. It’s not a mix, the tracks are included in their entirety, one following the other. The series was launched back in February to mark my 50th birthday.
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