The Rocker
Originally on Vagabonds wasn’t it ?
Phil’s favourite I think.
I remember when he died Leslie Crowther ,his father in law,was very disparaging about his drug taking.Leslie,himself,died an alcoholic though.
I used to play this album to death in the mid-80’s when I went through a sort punk-goth phase. There’s a nightclub called Spiders in Hull which I used to frequent every Saturday night and this album was one of the club’s regular dancefloor smashes for us depressives lol!
Yeah, a brilliant album, energy all the way through. I must dig it out again sometime.
Good evening, hope you’re all well 
I’m feeling pretty sh^gged out after a two-hour workout, but I’ll hopefully stay awake long enough to post a few more goodies…
No.234: “The Queen Is Dead” by The Smiths (1986)
Not the highest-ranked Smiths album in the list, not just yet and I think we had one yesterday too didn’t we? The Queen Is Dead was the band at the height of their all-too-brief fame with Morrissey is overdrive with that sardonic, sledgehammer wit of his wielding his fountain pen with sarcasm abandon. Two vids: Big single from the album, followed by a live rendition of one of the band’s happier songs, ‘I Know It’s Over’:
No.233: “The Concert In Central Park” by Simon And Garfunkel (1981)
This legendary concert appearance brought back (with big bucks involved) that love/hate on-off relationship that was/is Simon & Garfunkel. Two contrasting, moody, grumpy personalities who begrudgingly went onto that New York City stage that day and gave the world’s television audience their performance of a lifetime.
I haven’t seen the televised gig since it was first aired when I was I think 16, but for once there is adequate footage of the whole thing on YouTube, so one day I’ll catch up with it. Three songs here from that wonderful day:
No.232: “Tim Moore” by Tim Moore (1974)
Ffosse - As a lover of 1970’s songsmiths, you need to see this.
I love throwing in a wild card now and again and this album certainly is a rarity in the field of songwriters who never quite made it.
I happened on this record very much by accident whilst I was visiting a fairground stall in 1981. There was a stall there whereby you pulled a string at the front and a vinyl album was raised up at the back of the stall. I won this one for about 25p I believe and I still have it. I also found the CD at great expense at HMV some years ago which cost me about £21.99 on import! How times change.
Anyway, I have always had a soft spot for this album as I regard Tim Moore as being right up there with the likes of Cat Stevens, Clifford T. Ward and even James Taylor as a brilliant singer-songwriter. The difference is that he had very little success. Apparently he is 68 years old now and still recording music.
There are, of course, no videos of Tim Moore, but I have found two audio documents of his marvellous gifted songwriting on the following songs:
The first is an absolute classic of a record which is firmly placed in my Top 100 tracks as one of my favourite love songs of all-time ‘Second Avenue’ (covered by Art Garfunkel and Colin Blunstone) then there’s the more uptempo title track. The third song isn’t Tim Moore at all but a fellow I discovered whilst looking for that ‘Second Avenue’ song - it’s a guy called Larry F who does a brilliant version of this most underrated song by an even more unsung artist. You will enjoy these.
No.231: “Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd” by Lynyrd Skynyrd (1973)
There isn’t really much to say that hasn’t already been said about this most unfortunate of all bands, Lynyrd Skynyrd. The only original member of the band who hasn’t been cursed by catastrophe is guitarist Gary Rossington who has kept this amazing band alive throughout all the death, drugs, plane crashes, motorcycle crashes and everything else the member of this band have been struck down with. Though, as I write, even Rossington has decided to call it a day this year after a final tour. I would love to have seen them in their heyday. Their signature song ‘Freebird’ has got to contain the best guitar riff of any that has ever been committed to vinyl.
Stay tuned!!
In the next post is a 42-minute documentary about the history of this unique Southern Rock band.
Bonus item!:
Okay guys, I’ve had enough tonight. I’m knackered. More tomorrow, but I dunno what time I’ll be on air as I’ll be on the p!ss in the afternoon.
Have a good night! 
An early start on this today as my plans for the gym fell apart due to the nature of being stiff as a board from yesterday’s effort 
A few here to peruse over. My apologies for some of the rather primitive narration I submit to these posts, I’m just running out of things to say to be Honest! 
Let’s get this show on the road then…
No.230: “Penthouse And Pavement” by Heaven 17 (1981)
B.E.F. – The British Electric Foundation. The term given to a couple of ex-members of the Human League along with their childhood mate Glenn Gregory who was initially the first choice for lead singer in the original Human League (missing out to Phil Oakey as Gregory was temporarily in the U.S. making a living as a photographer). I spoke at length about Heaven 17 in an earlier post (for The Luxury Gap album) but this was their debut as a band. Very early 80’s, very disco-dancey, sharp suited and with a crisp production this was hit-friendly pop. A well-received album by the critics and the public but inevitably losing out to The human League’s ‘Dare’ monster in the chart stakes.
No.229: “Heathen” by David Bowie (2002)
One of the best post-1970’s albums released by David Bowie. In fact, probably until the final couple of albums before the great man sadly left us, Heathen was like a film noir thriller set to music. Very cold and mysterious with some additional sound effects and a cool aura about it. A really good album.
https://images-fe.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61OESK705IL.SY300_QL70.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_zlWg_8pMk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO96nhky0nY
No.228: “Everything Must Go” by Manic Street Preachers (1996)
The highly prolific Welsh band with their best album IMO, Everything Must Go was one of the biggest ‘indie-rock’ albums to come out of that “Brit Rock” era.
No.227: “The Scream” by Siouxsie & The Banshees” (1978)
Debut offering from the gothic horror post-punk band led by Bromley’s Susan Janet Ballion. The Scream contained no singles to help it along but was a successful album on the back of their top 10 classic hit ‘Hong Kong Garden’, which I have included here too.
No.226: “Going For The One” by Yes (1977)
The classic Yes line-up of Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman, Alan White and mainstay Chris Squire with their late 70’s masterpiece, which went totally against the grain of the punk movement which was in it’s prime at the time.
No.225: “Damn The Torpedoes” by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (1979)
Third album from Petty and his Heartbreakers, featuring the great single’Refugee’ amongst its highlights.
No.224: “Frontiers” by Journey (1983)
No part of this list in recent days would be complete without a Journey album it seems. I think we had one every day this past week, which is just the way they came out.
This was the follow-up to the huge success of Escape with its five U.S. Top 10 singles. I rate Frontiers as almost as good and it does feature my favourite Journey song, the amazing ‘Faithfully’ – about life on tour without your girl to keep you company.
No.223: “Live At Pompeii” by David Gilmour (2017)
The most recent of David Gilmour’s seemingly endless string of live albums and DVDs, Pompeii was of course the setting for Pink Floyd’s original movie in 1971 and which Gilmour decided to revisit in 2016 with his own band. I saw this at a special screening at the cinema to promote the album last year.
No.222: “The Beatles “The White Album”” by The Beatles (1968)
Hmmm, this will divide watchers of this thread. How can I be so preposterous to only place “The White Album” at this lowly position one may ask? Because I rate the tracks, not the whole shebang. I think it’s half an great album, half a novelty disc. This was undoubtedly down to John Lennon’s new found obsession with peter Sellers and The Goon Show, and coming out with stupid ditties such as Piggies, Polythene Pam, Rocky Racoon and the absolutely hideous ‘Revolution 9’. Only my view of course, but it was saved by George’s tremendous ‘While My Guitar gently Weeps’ and Paul’s ‘Blackbird’, coupled with splendid group compositions such as ‘Revolution’ and ‘Back In The USSR’.
Nope, not one of my favourite Beatles albums but one which deserves a placing due to the nature of the classics it did contain within its grooves.
As usual with The Beatles access to videos, they are pretty non-existent at the best of times though I did find some related clips to this record:
https://persimusic.wordpress.com/files/2009/05/the-beatles-white-album.jpg
No.221: “Keys To Ascension” by Yes (1996)
The second Yes album in this instalment today, Keys To Ascension was a double album featuring one disc of new songs and the other performed live. I think this album is notable mainly for the majestic keyboard talents of Rick Wakeman, especially on the intro to ‘Time And A Word’, shown here alongside a great version of ‘Close To The Edge’:
No.220: “Band On The Run” by Wings (1974)
Famous just as much for it’s sleeve featuring such popular public figures at the time as Michael Parkinson, John Conteh and so on, Band On The Run was easily Wings’ best album. After that they got a little too “Americanised” with their slushy radio-friendly ballads whereas on this album they at least knew how to rock.
No.219: “Graceland” by Paul Simon (1986)
As famous as a politically-aware statement - his usage of black South African musicians and the Sun City performance was highly controversial at the time (there’s an extra clip of Paul Simon’s explanation below) - Graceland was a superb album full of Simon’s excellent songwriting on a variety of subjects. The video to ‘You Can Call Me Al’ featuring comedy actor Chevy Chase, on that hilarious spoof of himself, is a classic 80’s moment. And Paul Simon’s songwriting was never better: “Why am I soft in the middle, when the rest of my life is so hard?” Brilliant.
http://www.ladiscoteca.org/imprescindibles/Graceland/graceland3.jpg
