A Wizard....A True Star...

Todd Rundgren... pretty much the poster boy for cult musicians/bands...fanatical fans, prolific, always leading the way following his new musician muse. Someone that was a multi instrumentalist long before Prince (who is a massive Rundgren fan) A industries and labels nightmare to deal with, always turning a 360 as soon as a "crossover" is about to happen, never about to make a "follow up" to capitalise on a albums success. "SOMETHING/ANYTHING" was his BIG album, with singles like "I Saw The Light" and "It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference" becoming staples of AM radio and the start of the power pop boom... so what happens next? He retreats to his studio workshop and makes "A Wizard A True Star" a psychedelic opus that segues songs into one another then drops a soul medley of the delfonics from out of space...yes acid was involved...

Where ever you are, he is 3 steps ahead of you...and has multi coloured rainbow hair when he's doing it...

he also made time to produce The New York Dolls debut and Bat Out of Hell!

In Todd we trust.

download...spotify....whatever.

1) I saw the light
2) It wouldn't have made any difference
3) Can we still be friends
4) sometimes i don't know what to feel
5) zen archer
6) Marlene
7) be nice to me
8) hello its me
9) god said

its behind you!

what? Their careers...please fuck off...

Below are my personal choices of musicians and artists that should bow out and fuck off as they haven't produced anything of any quality for 30+ years and counting..

Here's 3 of them....

3)The Who...for the love of god please jack it in. You've made 5 star records and even as recently as the post 9/11 tribute you were a live act to be reckoned with BUT... Moon's dead, Entwistle's dead...its just Townsend and Daltrey, one would prefer to surf the web and the other with a fishing rod in his hands, these aren't the same people that rocked Woodstock. I understand why Pete Townsend is so eager to keep The Who going...the answer? His solo albums are ignored and filed in the dustbin...but why? he writes ALL The Who songs single handily so why would his solo songs be any worse? Who knows. He sticks The Who branding and LOGO on the sleeve and gets another million sales from the fans..that's why... Roger Daltrey has 1 vocal riff left..that's the "love reign o'me" thing he does in everything from "see me, feel me", "wont get fooled again"... "hope i die before I get old?"...before WE get old can you "die"....



2) Eric Clapton.... Eric..where did it all go wrong? Star guitarist for The Yardbirds, then John Mayall's bluesbreakers,then Cream...but then the problems started...they wanted you to go solo...your not a solo act...your a guitarist..you cant sing for shit and your songwriting is patchy at best..you have had some lovely moments during the Layla and 461 Ocean Boulevard period but generally it was just some blues covers then half arsed Band/J.J.Cale lite rubbish. Every 5-10 years you put out ANOTHER live or "blues" album where you murder the usual suspects. Your Robert Johnson covers album seemed a good idea on paper...until it was heard...it was boring as a bread sandwich.. great alive songs sounding like cliche ridden 12 bar plods... maybe you need a stiff drink, a line of coke and a good Saturday night..

1) PAUL MCCARTNEY!!! why are you still hear? I know you don't want to retire but you are the prime example of "trendy dad"...your an embarrassment. The Beatles are un-touchable and you have had some solo moments that do you proud but since "Band On The Run" and "Ram" in the early 70s you've just put out album after album of shit...Your fans (mainly clueless sheep like americans) who just blindly buy everything you do in an attempt to get some more beatles in their collections have to be disappointed. We all know you can play a multitude of instruments but do you really have to show this off every 10 mins just to show you can? Todd Rundgren, Prince, Stevie Wonder are all multi Instrumentalist far superior to you and they don't feel the need to mug it behind a drum kit whenever they get a chance to show off... Also the beatle bass...its a piece of Hofner shit that sounds like a toy. Its iconic granted and looked good in 64'...but we all know you used Fender, Rickenbacker and in the 80s even WALL basses..just put it in the hard rock cafe in a glass case and have done with it and while your there put yourself next to it...

...its the new Rock N Roll

what is? Rock N Roll... proper boogie woogie shouting stomping rock and roll...

its like a revolution because it revolves around and around time and again when needed... whenever music starts going to far up its own arse and getting fiddly with muso's making records for other musicians instead of the man in the street and their fans then rock and roll appears again to wipe away the shit and start again...it comes in different forms. The last I can remember has to be The White Stripes. A rock and roll band? Are you sure I hear you cry? Yes...3 chord (sometimes 2 chords, sometimes just one single riff repeated over) simple dynamic primal drums, no machines just full on saturday night paycheck music

It happened with Punk in the late 70s...prog had pretty much taken hold of the rock airwaves, disco was taking the pop stations and the economy had fallen through the floor here...bands formed learned 3 chords and bashed out Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry songs on speed and Punk was now mainstream..

I can feel it coming again... people want to smile again, not pose. We need the devils music back instead of the atheist dead electro music...lets have saints and sinners back in music..

listen to

"Who Do you Love?" - Bo Diddley
"Let it Rock" - Chuck Berry
"Keep A'Knockin'" - Little Richard
"I'm Walkin'" - Fats Domino
"Rumble" - Link Wray
"Searchin'" - Coasters
"Dust My Broom" - Elmore James

"I like rock and roll, and I don't like much else..."- John Lennon 1970

disco thru the years!

Tonight I will be embarking on the annual xmas work piss up. The venue is hosting a "disco thru the years" theme, 60's,70's,80s'90s...90s! that's the killer.. have we (and by we I mean ME) been relegated to a bygone era already? Those 90's songs, those 90s clothes..have (we) already become the laughing stock that we once saw in parents wedding photos of their "so out of fashion clothes,hair,jeans"....still the right side of 30 and it would seem I'm destined to burn out and fade away already...

here's to Oasis, Nirvana, Kula Shaker, Pulp, SHINE cds, boot cut jeans, cherry coke and wheat crunchies....

Dr Chris prescribes....

4 spoonfuls of I'm A Bird Now byAntony And The Johnsons

spotify,youtube,i-tune or just beg,borrow or steal the following tracks...

Hope There's Someone
You Are My Sister
What Can I Do?
Fistful Of Love

If you've never heard them then prepare yourself as he does have an unusual voice, some would say similar to Nina Simone, though I don't see the comparison myself, though Lou Reed (who sings and plays guitar on Fistful Of Love)said "he sounds like an angel".. and if you forget the cliche' and think of an angel as a spiritual godly being that is neither male nor female but a light soul free from all the earthly and human faults then I guess he's spot on....

Give them a listen, then repeat...if you still don't like...then move on..

How many Satanist's does it take to change a light-bulb?

answer: None....let darkness reign!

just thought of that one, reading about Anton LeVey, for those not in the know...he was the leader and creator of "the church of Satan"...which members included Marilyn Manson and funnily enough Sammy Davis Junior...

its his "black house" that appears on the front of The Eagles album "hotel california" and he's written many books on the subject of his so called anti-religion..

Only read 1 of his books, and surprisingly it's quite a good read, nothing about "Satan" as such, it's mainly a term his uses as the anti-christian...so basically a marketing tool. People see that and go "oh my...devil worshipping" and either run for the hills or think "cool"...either way they are usually disappointed when they read a few pages. It's simply a way of just living by your natural instincts and wants rather than following a list of rules arranged and listed by popes and politicians. His main example is the guys that he saw drunk at whore houses on Friday were the same guys he saw at church on Sunday begging for forgiveness... just do it, be honest...fuck all the guilt involved..embrace it...be your own judge,jury and executioner...

He also played a mean Keyboard... :o)

2 Days in.....

Just over 3 weeks to go till XMAS and I've already been rinsing out Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift For You..

its the ultimate xmas album....yeah,yeah so Uncle Phil will be slopping out in a maximum security prison fighting over a turkey sandwich when your picking the turkey skin and "deciding" that port is quite nice and maybe you should drink it all the time instead of JD....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNlLRiBIarI

D-DAY

First sentence,first paragraph,first......writers block...