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Tuesday, 21 November 2017

The Deplorables' Hit List: ten recordings that go down well with American patriots (and I like some of them too)

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Canadian commentator Gordon Sinclair's 1973 single started out as a radio broadcast - they just added...
1 comment:
Wednesday, 25 October 2017

Ain't it a shame - Fats Domino has left this Valley of Tears

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I must have first heard a Fats Domino record when I was five or so, which means The Big Beat has kept me rocking in my seat (and on my fe...
1 comment:
Saturday, 7 October 2017

The secret of Chic's success, revealed by Nile Rogers on BBC4 - start your song with the chorus!

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Strictly speaking, most of Chic's hits start with the instruments establishing a groove for anything up to 30 seconds - but what follows...
Sunday, 1 October 2017

Legendary British TV and music producer Jack Good and the Cary Grant film "Father Goose" - synchronicity strikes again!

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I was watching Cary Grant and Leslie Caron in the WW2-set romcom  Father Goose (1966) the other night in a fairly desultory fashion (it...
Monday, 28 August 2017

Britain should celebrate the actress, director, singer, and screen-writer Ida Lupino

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A few years ago, I was slumped on the sofa watching an old film noir on television - Roadhouse (1948), starring the rather charmless Richar...
Friday, 25 August 2017

Take the "My Favourite Song Openings" quiz - a blast from the past

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First warning: I first posted this four years ago. Second warning: If you want to test your knowledge of popular music (1953-1983), you sho...
Tuesday, 22 August 2017

Fats Domino - ten rays of aural sunshine from a true rock 'n' roll giant

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I gave a friend a Fats Domino greatest hits LP for his 20th birthday. I'd been bullying him into appreciating early rock 'n' r...
Tuesday, 16 May 2017

Happy 66th Birthday, Jonathan Richman, you splendidly goofy musical misfit!

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Very Velvet Underground - but minus the heroin and the gloom. "Roadrunner" is from 1974, and it's still his finest recording...
Monday, 15 May 2017

The Eurovision Song Contest may have tipped the scales in favour of Brexit

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As I'm not a fan of kitsch campery, and as I despise Europop with all my being, I usually give the Eurovision Song Contest a miss. But...
Sunday, 7 May 2017

Cool Cat Wild! goes all "friend of Dorothy" - we've been watching That's Entertainment III. Again.

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In 1976, I landed two tickets to the London premier of That's Entertainment! Part II, a second compilation film featuring clips from t...