Dancing with Mister D

The Rolling Stones - "Goat's Head Soup" (1973) - Rolling Stones Records

Hello Friends,

Considered by most to be the final record in their "Golden Era", The Rolling Stones' Goat's Head Soup is a dark, mysterious and inherently sad record.  Picking up where the iconic & epic Exile on Main Street left off, despair & death loom large.  Its the end of an era kids and with Halloween less than a week away, it seemed an appropriate listen!

The opening song, "Dancing with Mr. D" pretty much gives us an idea of what's to come on the rest of the LP: laid-back blues-rock with one foot in the grave!  With lyrics like: "Down in the graveyard where we have our tryst / The air smells sweet, the air smells sick" and "Human skulls is hangin' right 'round his neck / The palms of my hands is clammy and wet".  The "D" stands for Death and by 1973, the Glimmer Twins have definitely had their dance cards full!

The second track is the great, underrated "100 Years Ago"-- a nostalgic and wistful ballad with a country twinge!  This is followed by Keith Richards' heartbreaking "Coming Down Again" written about his tumultuous relationship with actress/model/muse Anita Pallenberg who had previously dated the since-deceased, Brian Jones.  (Editor's Note: She dated him while he was still alive!) This song might also contain the best Stones' lyrics ever: 

Slipped my tongue in someone else's pie; 

Tasting better ev'ry time

He turned green and tried to make me cry; 

Being hungry, it ain't no crime!  

You said it Keef!  (He's talking about pumpkin pie, right?)

Side One concludes with the two singles from the album "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)" and "Angie".  The first is a funked-up, sleazy tale of some cops shooting an innocent guy in NYC and the second is their famous ballad which is either written about Angela Bowie, Angie Dickenson or Keith & Anita's daughter, Dandelion Angela.  Or it could be about detoxing off heroin.  Take your pick! 

Side Two does not quite live up to the standard put up on Side One.  But, really, how could it?

"Silver Train", "Hide Your Love" and "Star Star" are all songs that could be best described as Stonesy.  By this point in their career, I think they've earned the right to their own adjective!

The soulful, "Winter" is the stand-out on Side Two.  This song is so chilly that it makes you want to put on a Winter coat-- no matter what time of year it may be!  (This song was supposedly co-written by guitarist Mick Taylor who never received any songwriting credit! Boo!)

Goat's Head Soup was recorded at Dynamic Sound Studios in Kingston, Jamaica.  It would be the last Stones' record produced by Jimmy Miller (who was quite drug-addled from working with the band since '68!)  A lot of has been made over the album's title over the years.  What does it mean?  Is it Satanic?  Are these boy hiding out in Jamaica so they can do drugs during the day and conjure demons by night?  Actually, I think when the band was in Jamaica they chowed down on something known as "Mannish Water" aka "Goathead Soup".  Here's a recipe... Enjoy!

RATING: 5 Eyes in Her Skull Burning Like Coals out of 5

Happy Birthday Bela Lugosi!

Happy Birthday to everyone's favourite Hungarian vampire, Mr. Bela Lugosi!

Voodoo Child

Richard Hayman and His Orchestra - "Voodoo!" (1959) - Mercury Records

Hello Friends,

The natives are restless on Vinyl in the Valley tonight!   I'm busy playing records and mixing up some cocktails while Tiki T. is busy poking needles into some voodoo doll she made!  Man, I hope these chest pains are just indigestion!  

Aptly titled, "Voodoo", this album is weird and scary like a good tiki album should be.  The rhythms are tribal and spell-binding.  The moods are exotic and dense.  This reaks of atmosphere! Perfect for your next Halloween party!

As the liner notes state: "Here is the fearsome fire and the brewing pot.  Here are the frightening shadows... You're not alone any longer.  The room is shaken with the frantic dances of the hungans-- so-called priests of voodoo... the cauldron boils and froths.  The walls echo to the cries and wails of the believers.  That's voodoo!"

There's a very soundtrack-y feel to this record.  Its almost as if Hayman was scoring a 1950's travel documentary about Haitian sugar plantations after dark!  One "song"-- "Incantation"-- with its exaggerated shaman incantations, actually makes you feel like some of the bodies buried in the backyard have started stirring!  

Great Googly Moogly!  

RATING: 4.5 so-called priests of voodoo out of 5

Neil Young - Harvest Moon

Its been a Neil Young kind of week!

Number NEIN!

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass - "Herb Alpert's Ninth" (1967) - A&M Records

Hello Friends,

Poor Tiki T. is feeling a little under the weather tonight so to "warm" things up we're listening to some Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass on the old turntable!

As the title implies, this is Senor Alpert's ninth record with the Brass.  Unlike what the title (and cover art) implies, this is NOT a record of Latin-themed Beethoven covers!  Most of the songs are pretty lively and shrill in the typical Herb Alpert-style like the top 40 hit, "A Banda", Cole Porter's "My Heart Belongs to Daddy", "The Love Nest", "The Happening", "Flea Bag" and a medley from Bizet's opera, "Carmen."

There's also some more subdued tracks like the Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends" and Judy Garland's-on-Nyquil, "The Trolley Song".

The highlight of this record, however, is Alpert's solemnly exotic tribute to songwriter & guitarist Ervan "Bud" Coleman who died earlier in the year. 



Well, that blows!

RATING:  3.5 rusty trumpets out of 5

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Alabama Pines

good song for a rainy October Friday.  

from the album, "Here We Rest" (2011).

Witchy Woman

Nelson Riddle & his Orchestra - "Witchcraft!" (1965) - Pickwick 

Hello friends,

October's here and we're celebrating Halloween all month long here on Vinyl in the Valley!

Best known for his soundtracks and famous arrangements for the likes of Sinatra, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, Linda Ronstadt, et al, Nelson Riddle actually had a pretty successful recording career himself!

The highlights on this LP are his lush and jazzy instrumental versions of the title track, "It's So Nice to Have A Man Around the House", "You Fascinate Me So", "Darn That Dream", "Blue Safari" and especially, "Playboy's Theme".

The instrumentation is big in spots and sublime in others.  The devil's in the details like the vibraphone in "Darn That Dream", for instance, or the background guitar on "Blue Safari".  

And check out this little minx on the LP's cover... nothing says dim the lights, light some candles and fire up the old Ouijia Board like a sexy brunette, a black cat, and a cigarette-smoking skull!

"Nice pussy"

RATING: 4.5 cigarette-smoking skulls out of 5

gogol bordello - American Wedding

Where is the vodka? 
Where is marinated herring?

Rod the Mod

Rod Stewart - "The Rod Stewart Album" (1969) - Mercury Records

Hello Friends,

Rod Stewart's debut solo album hit American shores in November 1969.  In England, it was released under the much-better title, An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down.  

Fresh off his duties as singer in the groundbreaking Jeck Beck Group, Rod "The Mod" Stewart recruited Ronnie Wood (also from Beck's group) on guitar & bass duties, Ian "Mac" McLagen (from the Small Faces) on piano & organ, drummer Mick Waller, guitarist Martin Pugh and even future prog-rocker Keith Emerson (who lends his keyboard talents to the Stewart original "I Wouldn't Ever Change a Thing") to record an LP of 8 songs that combines rock, blues, country & folk and features Stewart's impeccable and distinctive vocal phrasings.   

The album opens with a boozy, bluesy rendition of "Street Fighting Man".  It actually takes the unsuspecting listener a few verses to realize that this is indeed a cover of the Stones classic.  Next up is another cover song--the traditional American Folk Song, "Man of Constant Sorrow"-- that Stewart does it up in a laid-back country style.  This song might be better recognized from a version in the Coen Bros' movie, O Brother Where Art Thou?

"Blind Prayer"-- a seldom-heard, sleazy, bluesy gem written by Stewart is next.

Side One concludes with the melancholic ballad "Handbags and Gladrags"-- written by Manfred Mann's Mike d'Abo and more famous for its use as the theme song to the British "Office" television show!



Side Two contains three Stewart originals-- "An Old Raincoat...", "I Wouldn't Ever Change a Thing", "Cindy's Lament"-- and concludes with a slow rocking version of Ewan MacColl's folk ditty, "Dirty Old Town".  Yet another example of a song on this record that is probably more famous for a version that's not Stewart's (in this case, The Dubliners or The Pogues!) Overall, its an excellent debut record even though it really didn't have any of the humongous hits Stewart would have had throughout the 70's.

"Now what'd I do with me shovel?"

Fun Fact: Hey kids... did you know that before Rod Stewart became a rock & roll icon, he worked as a gravedigger in North London's Highgate Graveyard? Spooky!

RATING: 4.5 handbags and gladrags that your Grandad had to sweat so you could buy out of 5