Saturday Links.

"The Wind Cries Mary" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

"Mademoiselle Mabry" by Miles Davis.

"Miles Beyond" by The Mahavishnu Orchestra.

 

Friday First

"Maggot Brain" by Funkadelic.

 

Friday

 "Ständchen" from Schubert's Schwanengesang, performed by Barbara Hendricks and Radu Lupu.

...and a transcription for cello and piano, performed by Anne Gastinel and Claire Désert:

Thursday

Schubert's Der Lindenbaum from Winterreise, with the usually male vocal role taken by Brigitte Fassbaender. Aribert Reimann accompanies on piano.

"Moya" by Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Wednesday

The second movement of Schubert's String Quintet, as performed by The Takács Quartet and Miklós Perényi.

"Calling Out The Blue Light" by Arcana. From one of Tony Williams' last recordings, Arc Of The Testimony.

The second movement of Schubert's Piano Sonata No. 21, played by Sviatoslav Richter.

"This Is Hardcore" by Pulp.

"The Ecstasy Of Gold" by Ennio Morricone.

The first movement of Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony in B Minor, from Carlos Kleiber's incredible recording with the Vienna Philharmonic.

Part 1:

Part 2:

"All Things To All Men" by the Cinematic Orchestra (featuring Roots Manuva).

Schubert's Impromptu in E Flat Major, as played by Dinu Lipatti at his final recital. One of the recordings that kick-started my Lipatti addiction.

"Lazy Me" by Moby Grape.

"The Natives Are Restless Tonight" by Horace Silver. A great, swinging track for a sunny day.

Schubert's Allegretto in D Minor, as performed by Artur Schnabel.

"Comin' Back To Me" by Jefferson Airplane.

 

Friday First and Schubert Week.

"Astral Weeks" by Van Morrison.

BBC Radio 3 is celebrating the 215th anniversary of Franz Schubert's birth with 200 consecutive hours of the great man's work, starting today. I thought I'd join in by posting a Schubert selection each day over the next week. Here's the second movement of his String Quartet No. 14, "Death And The Maiden", as performed by the Busch Quartet:

"Since I've Been Loving You" by Led Zeppelin.

"Since I've Been Loving You" by Otis Clay.

"Never" by Moby Grape.

 

Ivy Drumming.

Ivy trying to swap a drumstick for a chocolate brownie, before settling for drumming along (sort of) to Elvis Costello's "Lipstick Vogue".

"A Change Is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke.

"A Change Is Gonna Come" by Aretha Franklin.

"A Change Is Gonna Come" by Otis Redding.

 

Tuesday

"No One Will Ever Love You" by The Magnetic Fields.

"Aime-Moi" by Charles-Valentin Alkan, performed by the amazing Marc-André Hamelin.

Monday

"Fratres (for Violin and Piano)" by Arvo Pärt, performed by Gidon Kremer (violin) and Keith Jarrett (piano).

"Le Cygne Noir" by Jake Thackray. He also recorded the song in English ("The Black Swan") but there's no sign of it on YouTube. Here's a Spotify link to the latter version.

"Cowgirl In The Sand" by Neil Young.

"Umi Says" by Mos Def.

"River In The Road" by Queens Of The Stone Age.

"She Was" by Camille.

 

Saturday

"Catacombs" by At The Drive-In.

 

Friday Firsts

"I Feel Free" by Cream, from Fresh Cream.

"For Ash" by Marnie Stern, from her eponymous album.

The first movement of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2, as performed by Kun Woo Paik with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.  Antoni Wit conducts.

"Afterglow (Of Your Love)" by The Small Faces.

"I Can See For Miles" by The Who.

"Broken Boy Soldier" and a cover of The Undertones' "Teenage Kicks" by The Raconteurs, from the 2006 BBC Electric Proms. Love the intro.

Wednesday

"Channel 1 Suite" by The Cinematic Orchestra.

Tuesday

"São Paulo" by Guillemots.

Monday

"Homelands" by Nitin Sawhney.

"Chocky" by Mogwai.

"Wax Simulacra" by The Mars Volta. Stunning drum work from Thomas Pridgen.

Saturday

"A Design For Life" by Manic Street Preachers.

Friday Firsts

"Chains Of Love" by The Dirtbombs from Ultraglide In Black.

"Chasing Shadows" by Deep Purple, from their self-titled third album. Excellent drumming from the ever-brilliant Ian Paice.

"Debaser" by Pixies, from Doolittle.

"Free For All" by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, from Free For All.

 

Thursday

"Move On Up" by Curtis Mayfield.

"Tonight, Tonight" by The Smashing Pumpkins.

 

"I Want You" by Elvis Costello & The Attractions.

"I Want You" by Bob Dylan.

"I Want You" by Marvin Gaye.

"I Want You (She's So Heavy)" by The Beatles.

  

Links

Thought I'd start posting some songs that are linked in one way or another.*

"Eleanor Rigby" by The Beatles.

"Eleanor Rigby" by Wes Montgomery.

"Thong Song" by Sisqo. The instrumental version, as it's considerably less horrendous than the one with vocals.

*Songs may occasionally be terrible.

My favourite song.

A Monday evening is as good a time as any to post it. "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye.

Sunday

"Thank You" by Led Zeppelin, from The BBC Sessions.

Saturday

"Fear Of The Dark" by Iron Maiden, from Rock In Rio.

Friday Firsts

"Meeting of The Spirits" by The Mahavishnu Orchestra, from The Inner Mounting Flame. The sound of a bunch of aliens discovering earthly instruments. Or something.

"I Don't Want Nobody To Lead Me On" by The Dynamics, from First Landing.

"One Finger Snap" by Herbie Hancock, from Empyrean Isles. Incredible cornet (!) work from the late, great Freddie Hubbard.

"(Ain't That) Good News" by Sam Cooke, the title track from his 1964 album.

"Bring The Noise" by Public Enemy. Ivy was dancing to this earlier today!

"Black Fire" by Andrew Hill, a track (and album) so good you forget how weird it is.

"Another Morning Stoner" by ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead.

"The Truth" by Handsome Boy Modeling School. The sample is "Coffee Cold" by Galt MacDermot.

 

"No Name #1" by Elliott Smith.

"Strawberry Letter 23" by Shuggie Otis.

Krzysztof Penderecki's "Threnody For The Victims Of Hiroshima" as performed by the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Antoni Wit.

 "Children Of The Grave" by Black Sabbath.

 

"Starless" by King Crimson.

"The Noonward Race" by The Mahavishnu Orchestra.

"Sunrise" by Pulp.

 

Sunday

"Napoleon Solo" by At The Drive-In.

The second movement of Philip Glass' Violin Concerto No. 1, as performed by the Ulster Orchestra with Adele Anthony as soloist, conducted by Takuo Yuasa. A good friend of mine inadvertently introduced me to it after I started flicking through his copy of Chuck Palahniuk's Rant, and caught sight of a passage which mentioned Ravel's glorious Piano Concerto in G, a work I already loved. I hadn't heard the other piece - Glass' Violin Concerto - but soon fell in love with that as well...

"1970" by The Stooges.

 

Friday Firsts

"Fake Empire" by The National.

"The Loom" by Bark Psychosis.

"Chain Of Fools" by Aretha Franklin.

  

Thursday

"Killing All The Flies" by Mogwai.

"Aire de Zamba" from Agustín Barrios' Suite Andina, as performed by Antigoni Goni.

"The Kid From Red Bank" by Count Basie.

"Not For Want Of Trying" by Maybeshewill. The speech is by Peter Finch (the first person to receive a posthumous acting Oscar; Heath Ledger was the second, fact fans) from the 1976 film Network.

A scorching live performance of "Nutville" by The Horace Silver Quintet. Yeah, Billy Cobham again. Yeah, he's amazing.

"The Art Of Easing" by Digable Planets, from their second album Blowout Comb, which is still one of my favourite hip-hop records.

"Broken Chords Can Sing A Little" by A Silver Mt. Zion.

"Ondine", the first movement of Ravel's notoriously difficult "Gaspard de la Nuit". Played live by the one and only Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. An amazing performance.

Monday

Some songs from the '80s:

"Monkeyland" by The Chameleons.

"The Killing Moon" by Echo & The Bunnymen.

"Medicine Bow" by The Waterboys.

"So You Say You Lost Your Baby" by Death In Vegas. A fine cover of Gene Clark's original.

Claudio Arrau playing the final movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23, better known as the "Appassionata". Ivy managed to find something to dance to in this!

"Sweet Thing" by Van Morrison.

Friday

"Why Didn't Rosemary" by Deep Purple, from their third, self-titled album - the last featuring the original line-up.

"La Guernica" by Billy Cobham. The drumming!

"The Awakening Of A Woman (Burnout)" by The Cinematic Orchestra.

"Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill" by Hüsker Dü.

"Tennessee Waltz" by Sam Cooke.

 

"Dancing Girl" by Terry Callier.

"Sinnerman" by Nina Simone.

 

Tuesday

"Fisherman's Blues" by The Waterboys.

As it's St. Valentine's Day, here's some Kyuss:

Monday

"Roads" by Portishead:

"Pay Not Play Not" by Max Roach and Hassan Ibn Ali:

News of the death of Whitney Houston broke today - here's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody", which I've chosen largely because I used to hear it at least five times a day whenever I visited my Auntie as a young boy. Whatever my reservations about some of her music, she had an astonishing voice:

"New Dawn Fades" by Joy Division:

Friday Firsts

Thought I'd start posting the occasional 'First' - an opening track that I like, and/or from one of my favourite albums. This is "Hors d'oeuvres" by Roy Harper, the first song on Stormcock.

On a completely different note, this is "Stem/Long Stem" by DJ Shadow:

 

"I Used To Try" by Nancy Elizabeth. I'd never heard of her before last night, when I caught her performing a stunning solo version of a song called "Echoing Telephone" on Tony Livesey's Radio FiveLive show. I don't think that song has been released yet (she's currently recording a new album), so here's another:

"Garvey's Ghost" by Max Roach

"Let England Shake" by PJ Harvey. Another of Ivy's favourites.

On a completely different note, I've also had this cartoon classic in my head most of the evening.

Monday

"Reflection" by Tool. Danny Carey. That is all.

"The Rose With A Broken Neck" by Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi. Heard this whilst Lauren, Ivy and I were in the café at Spike Island this afternoon and hunted it down immediately:

On a completely different note, I've just been listening to a World Routes tribute to Cape Verdean singer Cesária Évora, featuring Tito Paris performing "Regresso" (a song he wrote for Évora). Here's the very different, but equally lovely version by Évora:

Saturday

12-hour shift at work...listened to this all the way home. The classic "Turn The Page" by The Streets given a little twist in N29's Under The Streets Edit. Thanks to Nick Whittingham for bringing this to my attention a few months ago.

Friday Folk

"Solid Air" by John Martyn, the beautiful title track from his 1973 album, and a tribute to Nick Drake:

Thursday

"Me And My Woman" by Roy Harper. The closing track from his brilliant Stormcock album.

More Air-Drumming

"Lipstick Vogue" by Elvis Costello. The cause of more terrifying/hilarious air-drumming from Ivy. Brilliant bass playing from Bruce Thomas on this track (not to mention the rest of This Year's Model).

Talking of great bass playing, here's John Entwistle messing about in The Who's "The Real Me":

Tuesday

"Memorial" by Explosions In The Sky.

Monday

Chopin's Barcarolle as performed by Dinu Lipatti, my favourite classical pianist. I'm strongly convinced that 1:25 - 1:50 is some sort of pinnacle of musical beauty.

Sunday

"Vital Transformation" by The Mahavishnu Orchestra. Another astonishing drum intro - not that you'd expect anything less from Billy Cobham. The rest of the band know their way around their instruments too...

Saturday

"Pursuance" by John Coltrane. The way Elvin Jones resolves his opening drum solo at around 1:30 never gets old.

Friday Fusion

"All In The Family" by The Mahavishnu Orchestra. One of my favourite drum intros, courtesy of Narada Michael Walden.