The Day Today

Actually have to mention today.  Had an awesome lunch at Roka on Charlotte Street with wise wonderful friends, spent some time with a fellow insomniac, saw the magical Scarlett Lucy and saw the awesome one and only Anto play a little gig just down the road from my flat.  

Renato Carosone's Maruzzella

http://www.zshare.net/audio/648066431c38d92a/

Joe Simon: Love Vibrations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKIZfWGgUkA

The Nutmegs: Story Untold

http://www.zshare.net/audio/64764627d966dce4/

And, last but not least

Joe Sayer stealing a Famous Blue Raincoat up a tree romancing a manic muppet fox

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cHZQNWp9yI

Seven of Cups in the Outcome position. Indicates the outcome of the matter. Dreams. A fertile imagination. Numerous and sometimes conflicting desires. Dreaming up options. Window shopping for paths and goals. Fertility in mind and spirit. Bemused and confused by the possibilities of options. Unexpected turn of events. Realization of a long shot. Surprises. Triumph of the underdog. Humour, thrills, and vision.

Tim Hardin, Anto

Tim Hardin was probably more successful as a songwriter than a musician. his songs,'If I Were A Carpenter" and 'Reason To Believe' achieved more commercial success performed by other people (Bobby Darin, Rod Stewart, respectively). He started out playing blues music in the Greenwich Village area of New York around 1961. His (eponymous) first album came out on the Verve Forecast label in 1966 (there had been an earlier album with Columbia that was shelved) in which he had moved from blues-y to the folk-y music that now defines his career.

From then on he had several albums released but the closest he came to commercial success was a 1969 non single LP of 'Simple Song Of Freedom' which made it into the U.S.'s Top 50. He had quite a crippling stage fright and a burgeoning heroin addiction which resulted in him not touring in support of this single. He stopped writing songs after this period. He moved between England and the U.S. but his addiction had taken over his life. His last album, Nine, was released in the UK in 1973. He sold his writer's rights in the late 70's. At a gig in Seattle in 1979, he could only play 'Georgia On My Mind' over and over again. He died 6 days after his 39th birthday from a heroin and morphine overdose in Los Angeles where he lived as a recluse since 1975.

Reason to Believe

http://www.mediafire.com/?qn5lan252j2rgkj/

How Can We Hang On To A Dream

http://www.mediafire.com/?ck72avz031vz29n

First Love Song

http://www.mediafire.com/?8dac4i86fcbmuai

Black Sheep Boy

http://www.mediafire.com/?ac5pvcvr8oav6pm

His biggest success, a Bobby Darin song. a 'A Simple Song of Freedom'

http://www.mediafire.com/?w72ttk6uxj41059

Sublime

American ska-punk band from California that started out performing at parties in the Long Beach area. Sublime,  Bradley Nowell (vocals and guitar), Bud Gaugh (drums and percussion) and Eric Wilson (bass guitar) were playing from 1988 for about for about 4 years before their first album came out on Skunk records in 1992.  Their music eventually spread beyond the West Coast and they toured extensively.  In February 1996 they recorded what would turn out to be their third and last album.

Bradley Nowell had started a two year heroin "experiment" claiming it would aid his "artistic creativity" and help the band get attention from a major label.  When they got this attention though, he didn't stop using and his habit increase led to him pawning his guitars on a regular basis.  A month before the release of his their first major label (and what turned out to be a hugely successful) album and 7 days after his marriage (to Troy Dendekker), Sublime went on a 5 day tour of California and sometime in the night 24th May, Bradley shot up some brown stronger than the Mexican tar heroin he was used to and just like that it was over at 28.  A year after his death, their eponymous album was in the Billboard Top 20. 

Santeria

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrLJ6Saq7u4&feature=fvw

http://www.zshare.net/audio/647625205ef80002/

maybe

Possibly the first proper girl group, possibly written by (Valentines lead singer and man who discovered them) Richard Barrett and possibly written by (lead singer) Arlene Smith and George Goldner, possibly what I have mostly been listening to today... The Chantels recorded this October 1957 and released it 1958.  It was their second single and their biggest.  I love it.

Maybe

http://www.zshare.net/audio/647120493b483dcd/

Tell me

Sometimes I wonder...how mental would life have been if you were in the Rolling Stones?  Never stop touring, never stop playing.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5HNk5adESE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6FoYuNvQq4

http://www.zshare.net/download/646818199ea51ac2/

Its my birthday!

Get Ready 

http://www.zshare.net/audio/6448833885f62171/

sexy party time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg3ccf9cnsg&feature=related

marmalade

I love this dude's voice....from Scotland, formerly Dean Ford & The Gaylords (changed their name  in 1966) The Marmalade interestingly had 2 bass players.  They did ok from '66 till about '72 and they are still technically around now although since 1971 their line-up changed and only Graham Knight (bassist and vocalist) remains from the original.

Their most successful single was this one from '69 which even made it into America's top 10.

Reflections Of My Life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79NiN7ISW7E

http://www.zshare.net/audio/64405481e1207389/

Going back to 1966, The Marmalade were offered a song called 'Everlasting Love' which they rejected.  First released by Robert Knight in 1967, Love Affair scored a no.1 with it in 1968.

Tenuous link but its great...

Everlasting Love

http://www.zshare.net/audio/64405815520f8f6b/