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Showing posts with label The Byrds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Byrds. Show all posts

Tuesday, 7 January 2014

The Byrds - Chestnut Mare

OLD PA'S WEDNESDAY CLUB

A Birdie Song

Who's a pretty Boy then?

 THE BYRD'S - Chestnut Mare (1970)

There I was watching the crappy Corrie Omnibus with Old Ma and we heard this strange whistling out side.  We went out to search what on earth it was. Eventually we saw a Cockateil in one of our trees, Our two Yorkies, Dixie and Rafa were barking in panic and excitement, Old Pa was in a panic which just made things worse. Old Ma was screaming at Old Pa to get the dogs away and inside. Laika (our Husky cross) was in full kill mode.

I eventually got the dogs inside. Old Ma called to the bird, offering her hand, it flew on to the gate and she managed to grab it by the tail. The bird squawked in fright and bit her hand ferociously. She had deep bites but did not let go and managed to hold on to it, what a trouper!

The bird.it was obviously very tame, it is now in one of Old Ma's spare cages and settling in quite nicely. His provisional name is Nole (Novak Djokovic).

All we need now is a little abandoned Joey to be left on our doorstep, well it is the Australian open next week!! (tennis of course)

The Byrd's Chestnut Mare showcases the great Roger McGuinn at his very best.
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Wednesday, 9 October 2013

Belle & Sebastian - The Boy with the Arap Strap

Old Pa's Wednesday Club


Don't like yours!!


 

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN - The Boy With the Arab Strap (1989)

I did a post a few weeks back about making up compilations for Old Ma, they were called 'Michele Friendly'.

Compilations have always been a big part of my life, I started with cassettes in the early seventies, the first series was what I called  'All Time Greats',  I thought of an artist and would get hold of what I thought was the best track by that artist. Not always easy back in those days.

It was usually quite straight forward. For example Procol Harum would be a Whiter Shade of Pale, The Byrd's and Mr Tambourine Man, Led Zeppelin with  A Whole lot of Love,

 "Hold on" you may say, but what about Stairway to Heaven? But it was my choice and I did try to be as fair as I could be.

I continued with the task until a few years ago, but have not updated the file for several years. The file of MP3s is now over 32gb. I did relent and later I included all the best tracks for each artist. It was my labour of love. The Beatles and Dylan files, went into the hundreds.  If any stranger came round and music was required, it was easy to slip on some ' All Time Greats' as eventually your were bound to get a 'hit'.

There were compilations for the Best of the Month, compilations for going on Holiday, compilations for World Cups and compilations for Weddings, Funerals, anything . Probably one of the best was  Don't Like Yours, shortened to DLY.

This started because, when we all came back from the pub or a meal out, we always had to play music and we all wanted to be first to get our tracks on. 

This developed into 3 each, when you selected 3 tracks, then the next person selected their 3 tracks and so on. It meant that there was no 'hogging' the music.

If you went to the toilet or left the room when somebody else's tracks were on, well that just was not done and was frowned upon and could even result in missing a round of three.

The DLY was great, we each selected say 5 tracks, we sometimes had themes or you had to include an oldie. We ended up having many DLY Cd's which could easily be slipped on when we were all together. This stopped all the talk about 'hogging'.

I suppose Tune Doctor was a bi-product of this.

Each Christmas we all prepare our best 20 tracks of the year and we play them on random on Xmas Day and News Years day. This is also always met with great fan fair and excitement.

If we go on holiday together, well we always chose 4 or 5 tracks each and then we can play the official holiday Tape/CD/MP3, (what ever makes you comfortable) when we are in each others room for pre-evening or after anything. We have on tap, music we will all love, apart from London Scouser's of course.

I chose Belle and Sebastian, as this was a track on an early DLY which was not my track, but one from London Scouser and I loved it.   

By the way I don't like Yours.
 
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Wednesday, 10 April 2013

WEDNESDAY CLUB - Byrds/Woody Guthrie - Pretty Boy Floyd

HOSPITAL STORIES PT 2 of 3
Every crime in Oklahoma was added to his name

 
THE BYRDS - Pretty Boy Floyd (1968)

I went to A&E,  I was in pain with my foot. They immediately took me to a ward. Luckily I was given an end bed and it backed on to a grassy area. I had an emergency number to call as I had medical Insurance with my company. They arranged a private room for me the next day.

The on duty consultant said he would arrange a friend of his who was one of the leading foot surgeons in the country to deal with my case. He came in especially, I was treated like royalty. I was later discharged and had to come back for an operation a week later.

When I came back for the operation the first specialist just happened to pass my door and popped his head in to wish me good luck. What a nice guy I thought.

The operation was a success but it took a little while for me to walk properly. My wife was in Spain at the time so I took full advantage of the time off and getting a certificate when its an Insurance claim was not a big problem.

When I got the copy of the statement for the treatment, I was shocked to see that the original specialist had claimed for first seeing me. Fair enough.  Then he claimed again when he brought in the foot specialist, although, he did not stay more than a minute. He then made a further claim for consultation when he popped his head in to say good luck. His claims were about £500 and he did not actually do anything other than arrange his friend to come.

I also saw a  further consultant after the operation and was in his room twice for  not more than a couple of minutes each time. He was more interested in my home town of Inverness (as he was going to Scotland on holiday) than looking at my foot. Two more claims at a £150 a time. (four minutes 300 quid).

Our poor footballing heros are being short changed.

Some will rob you with a six gun, some with a fountain pen      

The words of Wood Guthrie, screamed.

What a classic by the Byrds from their album Sweet Heart of the Rodeo. It does not get too much better than this.  When this came out in 1968, I was blown, blown away.  Gram Parsons had joined the Byrds for a short time and his Country influence shined through. If ever there was an album that you could describe as Country Rock, then look no further than Sweet Heart of the Rodeo. It is, and still is, a breath of fresh air


Here is the the original by Woody himself.

 
WOODY GUTHRIE - Pretty Boy Floyd

More hospital stories?
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Thursday, 13 October 2011

DYLAN COVER # 18 - GUEST SPOT - Never Ending Baby Blue Part 1

Smoking a Tab

This week is our first, in a two part 'Dylan Cover' guest spot and comes from an old school teacher during Flycasual's days in Saudi Arabia. His class was the original school of rock, he was funny, he was good at maths, he almost led us to footy glory in Dhahran 88', he's Brendan Barry:-

Never Ending Baby Blue

No other Dylan song has yielded so many great covers as It’s All Over Now Baby Blue. One of the main reasons for this is that Them’s magnificent and highly original 1966 arrangement has itself been covered and reworked by so many bands.

Including  Bob himself, I can count at least 9 versions that are worthy of stone cold classic status.
(1) Dylan’s own version, especially the one with his Blonde on Blonde voice from ‘Live 1966’,

(2) Them’s jaw-dropping reconstruction mentioned above.


  (3) Grateful Dead’s fluid and seamless live version from ‘Vintage Dead’




(4) The Byrds’ stunning stinging staccato outtake from ‘Turn Turn Turn’,


(5) Joan Baez’s classic crystal clear clarion call delivery from 1965.

Part 2 will be next week (I can't wait)

Are there any other Dylan fans out there who'd like to do a guest spot on 'Dylan Covers'? Let me know in the 'comments' and we can arrange a spot.
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