Isolated music tracks are an absolute delight for obsessives - The Band, Beach Boys, ZZ Top, Stones, Beatles...and Linda McCartney!

"Chinese wrestler's jockstrap cooked in chip fat on a greasy day" - and other hippy ditties

It about to get very hot here in London - the temperature could be in the 90s by the end of the week, and the fans (the air circulating devices rather than worshippers) will be blowing up a storm in the Grønmark household. For some odd reason, when the temperature gets that high I tend to start listening to hippy music, which I always associate with summer - perhaps because intense heat renders me less judgmental and allows me to ignore the spectacular goofiness of most of the lyrics. Here's a selection of tracks from the late '60s that will be helping me weather the impending inferno. I'll start with the song which mentions the Chinese wrestler's jockstrap, whose lyrics are definitely a cut above the competition  (although the music isn't) - Roy Harper's "Nobody's Got Any Money in the Summer":

My favourite story songs, Part 2: from Creedence and Kassenetz-Katz to Sufjan Stevens and Fairport Convention

1960s singer Judsy Henske passed me by at the time - pity, because she's one the best female singers I've ever heard

Cecil Ingram Bastardo sprinkles some magic dust over The Fulminators' version of "Train Leaves Here This Morning"

If you love Sixties US pop music, you’re a fan of drummer Hal Blaine – whether you’ve heard of him or not

No, honestly - Hal Blaine was so brilliant, so versatile and so ubiquitous, I guarantee that you know and love dozens of the records he played on. Elvis, the Beach Boys, Mamas and Papas, The Byrds, Frank Sinatra, Simon & Garfunkel, Sam Cooke, anything produced by Phil Spector, Johnny Rivers, Roy Orbison, Johnny Rivers, some Love tracks, Richard Harris (okay – that’s stretching it!)… well, you get the idea. He was everywhere!

Scrub my last music post – 1972 was almost as good as 1971 for albums, even better for singles!

Okay, I’ve got my excuses ready. The reason I was so wrong about 1972 is… the cat ate my homework! Will that do? Oh, the hell with it – I just got so over-excited by becoming re-acquainted with the glories of 1971, that I began dissing its younger brother without doing proper research. Truth is, ’72 – bless it! – was only a gnat’s behind ’71 in terms of albums, and actually ahead when it comes to singles.  The singles list alone is actually awe-inspiring – and I thought the early ’70s was meant to be the era of the long-player.

1971 - the best year ever for great albums and singles

My favourite parody songs: the Bonzos, National Lampoon, NTNON, Chris Morris and Tony Ferrino

Far out! The best albums and singles, 1970 - what a ridiculously brilliant year!

We’ve had a truly revolting day trying to open a new account for my son with one of our main High Street banks. We then spoke to a mobile phone company, followed by a trip to PC World. This all left me more convinced than ever that most of our major businesses are deeply autistic - at one stage the woman at the bank (she may have been a cyborg) actually said "I'll ask the computer". Guess what the computer said. My son has gone off to a party to wipe the horror of these various encounters from his mind and I intend to start the psychic healing process with a blast of self-indulgent musical nostalgia, as this ofte works for me.

"Good morning, America, how are you?" - train songs are the best

Far out! How Medicine Head helped me through my first year at university

It sounds like the stuff of nightmare: it’s the early 1970s, and here are two hippies from the Midlands trying to play raw, rootsy 12-Bar Blues, but without a proper band. They don’t murder classics – they write their own material, which sounds as if it’s been written under the influence of acid, and then deliver it in a style that suggests a heavy intake of grass and downers.

"The Band": the greatest LP in Rock history from the most talented band in Rock history

The most accomplished, inventive and intriguing rock band America has ever produced is The Band.  I enjoyed their 1968 hit single, “The Weight”and 1969’s UK hit, “Rag Mama Rag”, but I had just bought my first stereo system, recorded music was expensive back then, and there was oodles of great new stuff to choose from.