Tiger Feet - Mud

Ah, 1974 and glam rock is up and running. And boy was I into it. But I don't think UK band Mud were that big here in Australia. If anyone cares to correct me, please do. They certainly had that classic Chinn/Chapman sound (and lyrics); being the famous writers and producers. Think Sweet and Suzi Quatro for other examples.

It's great to discover at least some of the younger generation really like this oldie. I can speak from seeing it with my own eyes at a party.  They even requested it. True.

Here's what all the fuss is about. Few seconds of unrelated clip at start.

Great dancing!  I'm sure that bloke-with-bloke dance - about 1:27 in - was done by skinheads or sharpies here!  Yep, that's a male lead guitarist. And nope, I have no idea what he is wearing. But it's 1974 and so rude to even ask :-)

- Gheorghe Zamfir

It's a beautiful, traditional Romanian pan pipe folk tune.  But for me - and lots of others - it is memorable and haunting for another reason.  Link updated April 2015, working again (hopefully!):

Breathe With Me Till Dawn - FuTuRo

One of the first mashups I heard. And what a beauty. Mashups are created by taking 2 or more original recordings and digitally merging them into a 'new' song. It really wouldn't have been possible in the days of tapes (analog) because chances are the 2 songs weren't the same speed nor key/pitch. So if you slowed one tape down - to match the other one's speed -  you'd drop its pitch.  And vice versa. You'd be chasing your tail.

At this point an interruption and shout-out to Mr Lee Simon. My memory is that Lee did create an analog mashup back in the 1970s on radio 3XY. Linda Ronstadt had done a cover of Elvis's Love Me Tender. The 2 records were pretty much in the same key and same speed. So he could merge them! It was excellent.

Today you can digitally slow a song down and NOT adjust its pitch. Thus creative people can merge two of my favourite songs, like Breathe (Pink Floyd) and Stay With Me Till Dawn (Judie Tzuke). Two slow, lovely songs that you'd think wouldn't 'work' together. But boy, do they. Judge for yourself:

Twenty Flight Rock (1956) - Eddie Cochran

Like Lonnie Donegan, Eddie Cochran was another artist who deeply influenced the young Beatles, back in the the 1950s.

Cochran was an American rock pioneer, who had other hits including Summertime Blues, C'mon Everybody and Something Else.  Now, I knew all of these last 3, not least of which due to Sid Vicious doing quite straight covers of them. But the Beatles book "Shout" (see the Donegan post of mine, above) mentions his first song - Twenty Flight Rock - as one the young lads really got into.

Sadly Eddie Cochran died in a car crash in 1960.  And here's the song, possibly as JPG&R first saw it, in the 1956 film The Girl Can't Help It.

Rock Island Line (1957) - Lonnie Donegan

Beatles!  Some 30 years on I'm re-reading the excellent "Shout! - The True Story of The Beatles" by Phillip Norman.  Still have my original hardcover too.

As I may have mentioned, I'm quite into meta-influences; that is who influenced artists I like. And the book makes it clear that John and Paul et al looked up, with wonder, at Lonnie Donegan. In fact it says that "...(in 1956)...it was after seeing Lonnie Donegan that Paul began clamouring for a guitar" [p28]

The book particularly names his cover of Rock Island Line. Which I'd never heard in any form.  Thanks to the Interwebbynet thingy that was quickly rectified. And I'm impressed.

It certainly starts slowly, but then rapidly builds up as the train, travelling on the Line, accelerates away.  It's well worth a listen.