John Olson (unrelated to Peggy) was a war photographer in Vietnam, first and foremost. He took these photographs for Life Magazine in 1971. They kinda remind me of Hannes Schmid's work ...

I keep getting back to this song … do you know what I mean? Lesley Duncan (née Cox) wrote and performed the original version in 1969, while Elton John's cover version from 1970 - which also features la Duncan - has made the song famous ever since … resulting in fine versions by Dionne Warwick(e) (1971), Peggy Lee (studio version d.d. 1972), etc. (Apparently, David Bowie and John Hutchinson had already recorded a demo of this song as soon as 1968-12, later to be released on the bootleg "The Forgotten Songs Of David Robert Jones".)
http://www.lesleyduncan.net/
http://www.45cat.com/record/rca1783
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesley_Duncan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumbleweed_Connection
http://thehelplessdancer.wordpress.com/2010/03/21/lesley-duncan/
http://garbocathedral.blogspot.com/2007/10/lesley-duncan-love-song.html
http://eltonjohnallsongslist.blogspot.com/2008/06/unforgettable-people-xxi-lesley-duncan.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/lesley-duncan-singer-and-songwriter-who-worked-with-elton-john-and-pink-floyd-1942138.html

While Jeanette Leech was writing her fab folk book … Rob Young was working on another excellent volume - not just about folk: "Electric Eden - unearthing Britain's visionary music" (Faber && Faber 2010-08-05, ISBN 9780571237524). I haven't finished reading it yet but it's a real treasure trove of information, making it an impossible task to list the acts he brings into view. (Kevin Ayers, David Bowie, Joe Boyd, Anne Briggs, Vashti Bunyan, Shirley Collins, Donovan, Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, Bill Fay, Forest, Fotheringay, Roy Harper, (Mike) Heron, the Incredible String Band, Bert Jansch, Kaleidoscope [UK], John Martyn, Mellow Candle, Mighty Baby, Mr Fox, Parchment, Pentangle, Pink Floyd, John Renbourn, Soft Machine, Steeleye Span, Traffic, Trees  ànd Talk Talk have been dealt with, of course. Surprisingly, Michael Chapman, Fresh Maggots, Mushroom and Tractor hardly get a mention.) On pages 512 & 513, for instance, Mr. Young describes the (three album) legacy of UK folk act Spirogyra (mainly Martin Cockerham & Barbara Gaskin) … Don't confuse them with the US fusion jazzers Spyro Gyra who debuted in 1978!
http://www.electriceden.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Young
http://www.psychedelicfolk.com/Spirogyra.html
http://www.thewire.co.uk/details/contributors/?contributor=10
http://www.faber.co.uk/work/electric-eden/9780571237524/
http://www.readysteadybook.com/Article.aspx?page=robyoung
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/book-review-electric-eden
http://sidsmith.blogspot.com/2010/07/podcasts-from-yellow-room-xxix.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/07/electric-eden-folk-rob-young
http://growlikeweeds.com/2011/05/10/rob-young-reading-from-electric-eden/
http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2010/07/electric-eden-music-young-folk
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/07/entertainment/la-et-robyoung-20110607
http://fionnchu.blogspot.com/2011/04/rob-youngs-electric-eden-book-review.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/books/electric-eden-by-rob-young-book-review.html
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/brieflynoted/2011/07/11/110711crbn_brieflynoted4
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/electric-eden-by-rob-young-2331733.html
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2011/10/interview-with-rob-young-author-of-electric-eden-unearthing-britains-visionary-music.html
http://www.artrick-playground.com/article/Interview-with-Rob-Young-author-of-aElectric-Eden-Unearthing-Britainas-Visionary-Musica/619/510396

Mark Landsman's 83' "Thunder Soul" documentary on Houston's Kashmere Stage Band (as produced by Jamie Foxx, 2010) isn't featured on Now-Again's 2cd + 1dvd package (NA-5085, 2011). But it does feature there's a 12' making of, footage of a 3' live version of "Makin' whoopee" (1972) and a 27' documentary by Charles Porter (1973 - check the KSB on holiday in Paris, Brussels, Louvain, Waterloo, Breda and Bonn). It's a mighty package with a 40 page booklet to boot … but it has only one flaw: there's no song author credits, making it difficult to find out which tracks are KSB originals and which are cover versions. Speaking of which: expect more "Shaft" covers in a future post + find a free download of Egon's extended edit of James Brown's "Super bad" (as featured on the 2005 US - but not Jazzman's 2002 UK - edition of "Texas Funk: Black Gold From The Lone Star State 1968-1975" v/a cd) via the Now-Again site:
http://www.nowagainrecords.com/tag/kashmere-stage-band/  [5 pages!]
http://www.austinchronicle.com/screens/2010-03-12/977581/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5599377
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/23/140539483/thunder-soul-70s-sensation-dusts-off-its-groove
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/28/140891879/summer-school-funk-five-tracks-out-of-1970s-houston
http://www.filmindependent.org/news-and-blog/mark-landsman-on-his-influences-and-thunder-soul/
http://edendale.typepad.com/weblog/2010/03/sxsw-2010-mark-landsmans-thunder-soul.html
http://stonesthrow.com/news/2011/06/kashmere-stage-band-thunder-soul-official-movie-trailer
http://www.indiewire.com/article/toolkit-case-study-the-long-road-of-thunder-soul
http://www.indiewire.com/article/interview_thunder_soul
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmere_Stage_Band
http://funky16corners.lunarpages.net/?p=2009
http://stonesthrow.com/funky16/kash.html
http://thundersoulmovie.com/
http://kashmere.org/

"Tryin' times" - a magnificent song, written by Donny Hathaway and Leroy Hutson and first performed by Roberta Flack in 1969. Hathaway released his version in 1970; Hutson doesn't seem to have recorded the song. Flack's live version was recorded 1971-03-06 at the Soul to Soul festival in Accra, Ghana. (Do see the movie!) Fairground Attraction's version from 1990 is nice too.
http://www.kalamu.com/bol/2006/05/20/roberta-flack-“trying-times”/
http://dereksmusicblog.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/donny-hathaway-everything-is-everything-2/
http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Leroy%20Hutson.html
http://www.originals.be/en/originals.php?id=6475
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_to_Soul_(film)
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairground_Attraction

Piero Umiliani's classic track (1968), as made famous by David Mahna MacKay (in 1969 - more on him in the next post), Sesame Street (1969), Sesamstraße (?) and, last but not least, the Muppets (e.g. 1976) … Apparently, Jim Henson c.s. have recorded several versions, most of them by the character Bip Bippadotta ... but Sandra Bullock did her part too - see http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Mahna_Mahna_(song) for more on all that!

… off the 7th SuperFunk v/a comp on BGP (CDBGPD234) rel. 2011-07 …
http://www.acerecords.co.uk/content.php?page_id=59&release=8715

An excerpt from Jean-Christophe Averty's chroma key masterpiece "Melody" (1971, here in its entirety) which will be screened at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Lille (France) on 2011-10-04 alongside other extraits … Dixit Richard Metzger: "what is little known, even to fans of the album, is "Melody", the half hour, shot on videotape visualization of the album, created by Gainsbourg and director Jean-Christophe Averty and starring himself and Jane Birkin. It was included in the career-spanning Gainsbourg 2dvd box set "Serge Gainsbourg: d’autres nouvelles des etoiles" that came out in 2005." Incidentally, the two instrumental versions below are from 2011's Gainsbox … Hey and let's not forget Jean-Claude Vannier's important involvement either!
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Christophe_Averty
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_de_Melody_Nelson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_de_Melody_Nelson
http://www.heure-exquise.org/actualites_fiche.php?id=52
http://www.disvoir.com/fr/fo/a/82.html  (ISBN 2906571199)
http://www.metacritic.com/music/histoire-de-melody-nelson
http://www.radio-canada.ca/par4/salon/averty_homme.html
http://www.kqek.com/dvd_reviews/m/3391_Melody1971.htm
http://dogmatika.com/dm/features_more.php?id=1675_0_5_31_M
http://www.ina.fr/recherche/recherche?search=Gainsbourg&vue=Audio
http://www.ina.fr/recherche/recherche?search=Gainsbourg&vue=Video
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews24/Serge_Gainsbourg.htm
http://blogs.mediapart.fr/blog/vingtras/050810/jean-christophe-averty-ever
http://www.discogs.com/Serge-Gainsbourg-DAutres-Nouvelles-Des-Étoiles/release/1932048
http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/melody_a_film_starring_serge_gainsbourg_and_jane_birkin/
http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/on_second_thought/serge-gainsbourg-histoire-de-melody-nelson.htm