From The Archives: Merle Haggard, Son of Bakersfield Note: I wrote a bunch of stuff before posting the actual article. You know, like recipe sites, except I heard some of those guys make money. So just scroll down a thousand words for the actual thing y...

Ten years gone for Merle Haggard the other day. Kaleb Horton had the definitive piece at the time. It remains such. They’re both ghosts in the culture now, but ones that I always feel.

very noble of him to give them a good go - listening to half of the album once.

just heard some blokes on a podcast say that jimmy carr is the bob monkhouse of today and I was a little bit sick in my mouth.

Glad you liked it Billy. I’ve never thought about Field Music but you’re absolutely right! Agreed, I’d still love to see a release for Waterspout (and Cage, the Rupert stuff, any fruits of Paul’s 2008-09 sessions with Geoff Emerick etc!).

There’s still time! :)

Ranked: Paul McCartney's Greatest Albums | Rough Trade Across solo records, collaborations with Linda and the ever-shifting identity of Wings, we rank and review Paul McCartney's ten greatest albums.

I (quickly) ranked my top ten Paul McCartney albums for Rough Trade. Hope people like it.
blog.roughtrade.com/gb/ranked-pa...

Some 20+ years after they came out, the Beach Boys and Bee Gees boxes were huge for me when I borrowed them from my university library. I was already a Beach Boys nut but Tales from the Brothers Gibb really cemented my love for the Bee Gees.

Had this with Scottish Indie Poppers Whose Second Album is Sinister. Lot of solipsism and cringeworthy lines that I swallowed whole once.

B&W shot of a sharp-dressed man resembling Pete Murray amidst a gaggle of people.

B&W shot of a sharp-dressed man resembling Pete Murray amidst a gaggle of people.

I’ve been watching Powell and Pressburger’s I Know Where I’m Going! (1945) and I noticed a familiar extra early in the film. That’s the centenarian broadcaster and actor Pete Murray, right? Right?

Copy of Scott 4 on shelf.

Excellent work! I also found one only last week in Portsmouth - first time I’ve ever seen an original in all the time I’ve spent getting records. It really did flop, didn’t it? It’s got a pre-decimalisation price sticker which I won’t attempt to remove. :)

Scott 4 (1969), Scott Walker’s album released under his birth name of Scott Engel, perched on my record shelf.

Hell of a record tbf

I don’t know if you remember me from Twitter Rhodri. GOD this gig was great. Loved every second!

A still of Judy Parfitt in Call the Midwife.

Wikipedia infobox for Judy Parfitt, displaying a still of her 1966 appearance in The Avengers and showing her birthdate as 7 November 1935.

If anyone remembers me from Twitter, you will remember my morbid suppositions. Here’s a new one: the BBC series Call the Midwife (seemingly) ended last night. Was Judy Parfitt, who plays Sister Monica Joan, the last actor born in the 1930s to have a regular role in a British continuing drama?

These differences really manifest on (sorry to bring this site up) RateYourMusic. If an album has a certain median of positive ratings, it becomes “bolded” meaning it’s among the best-loved of its year. Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake *isn’t* bolded but Ultimate Spinach’s Behold & See from the same year is.

So aggressively peppy, too fast to dance well to, epitome of faceless corporate mid-80s “New Wave”. Glad someone else doesn’t like it!

*Micky - eek!

I wish I could see Mickey and could’ve seen any iteration of them when they numbered more than one member. I’m not even a diehard but the videos of Nez singing “Listen to the Band” at his last concert… it’s one of the most powerful performance clips for me.

I loved your appearance on TCBCast years ago - was so good to hear someone who approaches late-period Elvis without all the lazy cliches. It’s that Elvis I go back to the most. (Incidentally, your George Jones comparison is really apt. I’d love to know what your fave George tracks are.)

Love this record - those verses sound more like Britpop neo-psych than they do actual psych!

Kit Lambert described “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere” to reporters as, “A pop art record, containing pop art music. The sounds of war and chaos and frustration expressed musically without the use of sound effects.” A bored and then cynical Nick Cohn – Christ he was even more cynical than me – said calmly, “That’s impressionism, not pop art.” I repeated what Kit had briefed me to say. mumbling something about Peter Blake and Lichstenstein and went red. Completely out of order while your record is screaming in the background: “I can go anyway, way I choose, I can live anyhow, win or lose, I can go anywhere, for something new. Anyway anyhow anywhere.” Pete Townshend in Rolling Stone, 1971

I’ve always got the impression that he got sick of talking about Pop Art very quickly. Lambert and Butler seized on it by the end of 65 and Pete had a great bit about Nick Cohn quizzing him on it when he wrote for Rolling Stone in 1971.

60 years ago. Flicker flicker flicker blam Powis Gardens. It all begins here, underground pop dance fans.

To be fair, the chorus of that is all his melody.

Look forward to hearing this! He’s one of those figures whose stocks have arguably gone down a little over the years because he doesn’t have a clear “story” or persona for people to latch on to (and obviously there’s the long recording break, the Rushdie thing etc) but he’s such a great talent.

I DJ psych / beat / glam / a bit of soul and I can attest it rots your brain after a bit. Met a lotta older fellas with DJ brainrot. You end up just listening for certain beats and judging the records on their danceability and it becomes something else.

Light My Fire YouTube video by Teddy Turner's Bunsen Burners - Topic

Never heard of this - how brilliant. Have you ever heard Trill It Like It Was by the Templeton Twins? Another 1970 project with contemporary pop hits reshaped into 1930s dance band music. Lots of fun! m.youtube.com/watch?v=ac0B...

You’d make such an amazing contributor to that site if you ever fancied it.

Have you ever used RateYourMusic Marcello? It’s not a perfect site but a great thing about it is that its users are very much focused on the present. The New Sound is among the top 300 albums ever recorded on RYM’s user chart; To Pimp a Butterfly is at number one.

*I* am mostly ridiculed by old men but that’s another story. ;)

No, by people my age who I know! :)

I guess we all live in different worlds but as a young adult constantly on social media over the last ten years, I would struggle to think of two major pop acts more widely ridiculed than Twenty One Pilots and the Chainsmokers especially.