What with all those dinosaur boxes, here's a track with the Pink Floyd sound still très pointu at the sky … ideal for midwinter … As for the Floyd flock's greed: careful with that axe, number 51 …

"Gangster of love", some twenty years after the original version. Do listen to the delicious intro, with nods to the Coasters' "The Shadow knows" and "Riot in cell block no. 9" … (and did I recognise a "Limehouse blues" too?) - a sublime performance by Johnny 'Guitar' Watson & his band from 1977, recorded in Bremen (Germany). A well documented best of JGW's early work has just been reissued on HooDoo (who still have no website) as "Space Guitar Master (The 1952-1960 Recordings)" (2011, cat. no. 263397). "Motor head baby" is off that compilation and dates from 1952. Freaks note: the man was an important influence on Frank Zappa, and Jimi Hendrix dug "Love bandit" aka "Gangster of love" too; like the Cadets, he recorded a version …

Fantastic music … housed in a discouraging cover, sadly, as you can hardly read the band's name. Which may cause Koen Kohlbacher's Birds That Change Colour to be filed under "On Recording The Sun (And The Moon)" - the album's title (Munich 2011). For fans of Paul Roland, Ned Collette, Syd Barrett, Donovan, Kevin Ayers, … and delicate pop music tout court. Give it several spins and you'll discover one of the best albums of the year. And to see them live … 2011-11-11 or 2011-11-19 have cool bills …

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!

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

Brian Auger on French tv in 1968, and Les DeMerle in the same year, off his "Spectrum" lp (just reissued on Get On Down). Wonder who was the first to see a jazz adaptation in this song. And to boot: two more Beatles covers, from France, off 2006's "La France Et Les Beatles Vol. 2" v/a cd on Magic (who have an impractical site). And see also: http://uzine.posterous.com/a-dauner-in-the-life

Hats off to brother Ray Charles (1930-2004), y'all! I was - once again - blown away by Mr. Charles' genius ànd life story on the occasion of seeing "Ray Charles America" (Alexis Spraic 2010). Still, I'm in two minds about Mr. Charles' cover version of John Lennon's "Imagine" … which was recorded for a tv commercial about a French bank, incidentally.
http://raycharles.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Charles
http://www.nichill.tv/projects/raycharlesamerica/
http://3voor12.vpro.nl/artikelen/artikel/44220110
http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19764/
http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19765/
http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19767/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2003/jan/09/artsfeatures.popandrock
http://www.hollanddoc.nl/kijk-luister/documentaire/r/ray-charles---het-genie.html
http://www.humo.be/tws/tv-tips/22417/het-uur-van-de-wolf-ray-charles-america.html
http://www.discogs.com/Ray-Charles-The-Definitive-Ray-Charles/release/2046938
http://books.google.com/books/about/Brother_Ray.html?id=YI9CR9R9vq8C
http://www.musicmelon.co.uk/gallery.asp?collectionid=6#
http://www.ritzwrites.com/books.html
http://www.slate.com/id/2108507/

Great to learn that Giorgio (Hansjörg) Moroder will be awarded for his soundtrack work at the next Ghent film festival; Herr Moroder will receive the World Soundtrack Lifetime Achievement Award 2011 on 2011-10-22. The night before, there will be a Moroder party at the Vooruit (organised by Goodlife & avenue L). Let's hope der Moroder will come and perform "Chase" in a similar way as he did on German (ARD) tv in 1979:

Caravan performing "Golf girl" on "Beat-Club" (German ARD tv, not the BBC) around 1971. Off the brand new deluxe edition of "In The Land Of Grey And Pink" (Deram 1971, recorded 1970 - their third, and best lp, imho) … as are these versions:

… Darondo!
http://myspace.com/darondo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darondo
http://uzine.posterous.com/mo-darondo
http://www.wegotways.com/blog/2008/darondo/
http://www.ubiquityrecords.com/artists/DARONDO.html
http://ubiquityrecords.tumblr.com/post/815962996/darondo-goes-boating
http://larecord.com/interviews/2008/03/08/sat-mar-8-darondo-interview
http://www.acerecords.co.uk/content.php?page_id=53&searchtype=1&searchterm=Darondo
http://blog.ipickmynose.com/2008/06/02/darondo-nino-moschella-the-independent-review-photos/