MARCH PLAYLIST

1.  Wynonie Harris – “Keep On Churnin’ (Til The Butter Comes)” (1952)

“First comes the milk/ then comes the cream/ takes good butter to make your daddy scream/

Keep on churnin’ ‘till the butter comes…” shouts Mr. Harris.

2.  Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated – “Preachin’ The Blues” (1965)

Adapted from Robert Johnson’s 1936 recording, Korner plays a bouzouki by sliding a door key along the strings and Phil Seamen adds “African-style” drumming. Mississippi blues goes Greek via Ealing. Album (above) kindly donated to the cause by Monkey Snr. 

3.  The Answer – “I’ll Be In” (1965)

The Answer were from Berkeley High School, California and the snappy garage-twang of “I’ll Be In” plus the moody blues with a hooky chorus flip “Why You Smile” made this a great double-sider for White Whale records.

4.  Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery – “Night Train” (1966)

All aboard! From their album The Dynamic Duo, Jimmy and Wes are joined by a swinging 16 piece big band. James Brown would’ve loved the result.

5.  The Byrds – “You’re Still On My Mind” (1968)

The recruitment of Gram Parsons turned into only a short-lived affair but only eight months after The Notorious Byrd Brothers, the Byrds displayed their massive bollocks in releasing the full-on country album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, to a 1968 market. “You’re Still On My Mind” was written and released by Luke McDaniel in 1959, and with lyrics about honky tonk jukeboxes, “an empty bottle, a broken heart, and you’re still on my mind” was surely an influence on Merle Haggard whose “Life In Prison” is also covered on the record.

6.  Steve Stills & Al Kooper – “Season Of The Witch” (1968)

The Super Session album credited to Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper and Stephen Stills is slightly misleading as not all three played together. On side one Kooper and band are joined by Bloomfield; and on side two it’s Kooper and Stills. Both are great but Stills nicks it on points thanks to making Dylan’s “It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry” sound like Buffalo Springfield meets the Monkees; the phasing frenzy on “You Don’t Love Me”; and then this eleven minute epic in which Donovan invents the jam session. Especially love the bit when the (over-dubbed) horns come in.

7.  MC5 – “The American Ruse” (1970)

If ever there was an album which failed to capture the essence of a band, it’s the MC5’s Back In The USA; scorn of their thrilling sonic power as a live act it’s bafflingly thin sounding record. That said, taken on its own merits, I do still like it as a Chuck Berryesque rock and roll record and “The American Ruse” hinted at what the band were truly like.  

8.  The Last Poets – “Niggers Are Scared of Revolution” (1970)

Warning: Care should be taken when playing The Last Poets eponymous LP as the liberal use of the N-word (and F-word) could cause misunderstanding with neighbours. Three angry voices of East Harlem, symbolically formed on what would've been Malcolm X's birthday and led here by Omar Ben Hassen, taunt and call the bluff of their people.

9.  Leon Spencer – “Give Me Your Love” (1973)

Organist Leon Spencer’s Where I’m Coming From album for Prestige features two original compositions plus dead on the heavy funk versions of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition”, Four Tops’ “Keeper of the Castle”, Marvin Gaye’s “Trouble Man” and this rumbling take on Curtis Mayfield‘s Superfly classic.

10.  New Order – “Weirdo” (1986)

New Order’s 1989 Technique is one of my very favourite albums. So much so I’ve always felt their others records noticeably inferior but after digging out Brotherhood the other day it’s not as far off as I remember. 

TEENAGE FANCLUB - "I'LL FEEL A WHOLE LOT BETTER" (1995)

Keeping with this week’s Gene Clark theme, here – two years after recording “Gene Clark” on their Thirteen album - Teenage Fanclub perform a faithful cover of “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better” on Channel 4's The White Room. 

THE BYRD WHO FLEW ALONE – THE TRIUMPHS & TRAGEDY OF GENE CLARK (2013)

Gene Clark did go it alone but it was his refusal to fly which contributed to his departure from The Byrds, less than a year after “Mr Tambourine Man” catapulted the band to number 1 on the singles chart and had them heralded as America’s Beatles.

Jack and Paul Kendall’s new film The Byrd Who Flew Alone doesn’t make it entirely clear whether Clark walked completely voluntary or was pushed but when a panic stricken Gene suddenly got off a plane about to fly to New York his band colleagues weren’t in any hurry to offer much sympathy or persuade him to stay. David Crosby admits it would’ve been impossible to find five more completely different human beings, and when Clark – as their lead singer and main songwriter – was allegedly presented with a cheque for $47,000 and bought a Porsche whilst the others received $4,000 and caught buses it did nothing to bring the band closer together.

Forever grounded, Clark would never achieve those heights again despite a host of figures – including a very likeable David Crosby - now cueing up to declare him and prolific songwriter and genius. “He sang from his heart and he had great songs. Why didn’t it work? That’s the question,” says Chris Hillman. Using archive footage (some never seen before) and new interviews with the three original surviving Byrds, family, friends, record company owners and musicians, the Kendall’s attempt to find out.

His final manager, Saul Davis, states Gene should be regarded and remembered as at least the equal to Gram Parsons and the Father of Americana. Parsons though had the misfortune/good business sense to die at arguably his musical peak and leave a tidy back catalogue whereas Clark soldiered on through a fragmented career of folk, rock and roll and country, never quite able to find a neat fit in the music industry nor cope with the pressures (and pleasures) brought by fame. Carla Olson feels Gene was ahead of his time but Sid Griffin repeatedly claims Gene kept missing the ship leaving the harbour, in particular in the early 70s - the age of the singer/songwriter - a period which was should’ve been tailor made to suit Clark’s sensitive talent and ethereal qualities.    

Two Gene Clark’s emerge. The first is the relaxed poet, living a quiet family life in the woods near Mendocino, and the second is the boozy nightmare stomping around LA forever burning bridges. Not suited to taking any kind of drug, he took most of them: from booze and joints in the Byrds; to Martinis and LSD with Doug Dillard; cocaine; and eventually heroin. Whenever success came (or rather when the big money came like it did when Tom Petty covered “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better”) it would bring out the worst in him.

We hear A&M Records released him as he wasn’t prepared to do much promotion for his stunning second solo LP White Light (1971) yet blamed Asylum boss David Geffen for not doing enough to get behind what is now considered by many his masterpiece – 1974’s No Other – launching himself across a restaurant table to grab him Geffen around the throat. Punching the lights out of one of the most powerful men in Hollywood wasn't the wisest career move.

From there on his career remained mostly in the shadows unless reunited with whichever former Byrd was doing the rounds but he kept plugging away through the hard times – including the removal of much of his stomach - until his death in 1991 from a bleeding ulcer, aged 46. The film does a fine job in giving equal measure to all aspects of his career and ends with a captivating and poignant home-video performance of “I Shall Be Released”. I was already a fan but The Byrd Who Flew Alone has reignited my admiration for Gene Clark and is a worthy tribute to the man and his music.

The Byrd Who Flew Alone: The Triumphs and Tragedy of Gene Clark is released via Four Sun Productions on 1^st November 2013.

KONTIKI SUITE - "ON SUNSET LAKE" (2012)

“’I’m gonna hang out with the stars in Hollywood, and look at how far I’ve come… I’ll be part of the LA scene.” - Hollywood by Kontiki Suite.

The distance from Kontiki Suite’s Cumbria to their Californian dream is over five thousand miles yet throughout their debut album they effortlessly glide back and forth between autumn leaves of their home and a sun kissed Laurel Canyon. It’s a gentle romanticism that radiates from an album of extraordinary beauty.

For ease of comparison imagine the space between Younger Than Yesterday and The Notorious Byrd Brothers and fill it with an album the Byrds might’ve made with Moby Grape. Any band picking nervously at a twelve-string Rickenbacker has a Byrds reference thrust on them, usually undeserved as they lack anything like their depth and imagination but its valid here. There’s lovely intricate playing - from mild psychedelia to log cabin country - and such care (and presumably expense) taken over the arrangements, the recording and the production. Everything is crisp and crystal clear, and without wishing to come over all What Hi-Fi? sounds even more incredible through headphones when all the delicate little touches can be heard.

I've previously described "Music Man" as “achingly beautiful” – which it is - but it in no way casts a shadow over the other twelve songs, all of which bowled me over with their magnificence. There’s clarity of vision, a confidence and an assurance in their style that makes the songs flow effortless along with no unwelcome interruptions. There’s no wasted moment, no weak song. On Sunset Lake isn’t an album containing great tracks; it’s an album of only great tracks. Most albums are front loaded with the best tracks coming early; not so here, they are all through it, and if anything On Sunset Lake is sequenced more like a gig with songs competing to outshine the preceding one until the climatic (and only long track) “Magic Carpet Ride" and encore of "The Painter". You'll never find a better track 9, 10 and 11 run than "Watching Over Me", "Autumn Fields" and "Music Man". 

I’m struggling to remember when I last fell in love with a record as gorgeous as this. 

To listen and buy On Sunset Lake click here.