Scott McCaughey is quite interesting. I only know of the Young Fresh Fellows from a mention in a They Might Be Giants song. The Minus Five, I never heard of until this thread. I suppose they are somewhat underground US bands that don't generally make it to international exposure.... much like most Aus bands lol I get a Wilco-Tweedy vibe from several of the songs. A lot of 1990-2004 stuff slipped by me at the time, because that was the peak period of my personal band days, working full time, and being married, somewhat smothered the exploration i had done up to that point...
Avid Zeki, thank you very much for your presentation of Scott MaCaughey/Minus 5. The songs that you posted were enjoyable. Like Avid KM Dave 65-78, I remember the Young Fresh Fellows. In fact they were the Seattle band that I listened to during the grunge era (and afterwards). I think I first heard of them when I was hanging around the local college station where my friend Bob was a DJ. I even wrote them a fan letter and I actually got an answer. Anyway, Avid Zeki, as well as my fellow Avids, if you want to dive into the Young Fresh Fellows, here’s my recommendations: The Men Who Loved Music (1987): contains “Amy Grant” This One’s For the Ladies (1989): contains their cover of “Picture Book” It’s Low Beat Time (1992) I Think This Is (2009): produced by Robyn Hitchcock Toxic Youth (2020): Last album recorded at Egg Studios There’s also a split album w/The Minus 5 that came out in 2001: Because We Hate You/Let The War Against Music Begin
Threads I remember him starting were "the all purpose metal" thread, i think it was called... A U2 album thread... I can't remember what else
really? That makes some sense. I PM'd them once after that made a comment about Rob Zombie that I knew only someone that played with Rob would know. Then they told me they are Riggs but said something I knew was incorrect about Riggs so I told the real Riggs and he got mad lol
Thanks Zeki. I was expecting, hoping you would do Scott McCaughey. I hadn’t heard about him prior to hearing him on the podcast, in spite of having the Minus 5 cover of Get Back in Line on the Kinks covers album This is Where I Belong: The Songs of Ray Davies and The Kinks. I also just recently picked up another Kinks covers album Give the People What We Want: Songs of the Kinks, which has the Young Fresh Fellows doing Gotta Get the First Plane Home, and the Minus 5 doing Wicked Annabella. I’ve since dipped my toes into Minus 5 albums a few times, and always enjoy them. Having a post stroke recovery album, Stroke Manor, as my real introduction to him is interesting to say the least. Think I’ll make Calling Cotez next after giving Of Monkees and Men another listen. Besides the bands he leads, he sure does seem to pop up everywhere. I have the first Tuatara album, before he was really involved in that band (he’s only credited with playing steel drums on one track on that album), but I see he gets songwriting credits on a number of Tuatara albums after the first one.
I haven’t gotten this far yet. My unedited presentation included a list of seventeen (17) bands McCaughey is part of. In at least half of those he’s the driving force or an integral component.
I have two friends recovering from strokes so that was another reason I re-listened to the podcast. And, this time around, understand that his flurry of Neil Young covers are related to his stroke. Music comfort food, if you will. He’s covered 25 Neil songs. Scott the Hoople ‘Neil (Vol. 1)’: 13 tracks Scott the Hoople ‘Neil (Vol. 2: Welcome to My Dream World’: 7 tracks (plus 2 originals) The Minus 5 ‘Calling Cortez (Neil Vol. 3)’: 5 tracks (plus 6 originals including ‘Let’s Build A Pyramid’)
Seems like quite the prolific artist indeed @Zeki. Nice songs you posted, I listened to them all. I loved the #5 encore song posted most & dug the others too. I'm a huge Neil fan, so it'll be nice to check out all these cover versions. Quite a lot of stuff to check out it seems! Thanks for the posts.
My entire being recoiled at the idea of "presenting" music to the Avids, but then the question of what might even be possible to present here became an interesting challenge. I thought it should be pop or rock of some type, or something at least not too far from the general area. Not similar to The Kinks but something that might possibly be of interest to a Kinks fan. With that in mind, I figured it should at least be non-instrumental music with lyrics written and sung in English. That narrowed it down considerably. So what does one presume to be worthy of consideration by a group of erudite people accustomed to perusing some of the best songs ever been devised? I could think of very few candidates once all of these requirements were in place, and only one of them stood out as being something that I believe deserves to be heard and loved by more music people. Tenuous Kinks connection: They shared the same US label during 1969 and 1970. Not nearly as obscure now as they once were, and many (or most?) of you will already be familiar, but if even one new listener is gained because one person here who has never heard them before listens and decides they might be worthy of further investigation, mission accomplished. The artist I chose to highlight is Tom Rapp and his group Pearls Before Swine. His songs range from mysterious and otherworldy to philosophical and spiritual, sometimes straying into to socio-political commentary. Sometimes they are humorous, sometimes they are frightening, sometimes they are subtle and sometimes they are over-the-top hammerblows. They might seem pretentious to some. Some might find them insufferable. At least one Nashville musician even refused to play on these songs and walked out of a session. I find them uniformly intelligent, poetic, and effectively sung. The music ranges from fairly simple to more harmonically complex, and there are some beautiful dreamlike arrangements along the way. They also do some great covers, their version of Suzanne being my favorite. They do a few other Leonard Cohen songs, as well as covers of songs by Dylan and Judy Collins among others. They have even collaborated with the likes of Herodotus, Shakespeare and J. R. R. Tolkien, even if those talented wordsmiths remain unaware of the fact. At first hearing, this music was very left field for me. It is strikingly different from that which normally holds my attention and interests me, but over time it has steadily moved to a position of central importance, becoming something I need to hear fairly often. There is a emotional yearning for humanity being expressed in it that I don't mind admitting has the ability to move me to tears. It resonates with me on some basic interior level. The album covers are an interesting treat in themselves, most of them are excellent. The original vinyl editions are beautiful artifacts of those times gone by. Some critics back in the day considered their music to be "noise" and others described it as "horrifying." I have enjoyed this music ever since my first minute into hearing their second album "Balaklava" back in the mid '70s. I love all of their albums but have probably spent the most time with that record and the ones released by Reprise between 1969 and 1971, particularly their 4th through 6th albums "The Use Of Ashes," "City Of Gold" and "Beautiful Lies You Could Live In," released during the time when they finally become a real band and started playing live. There are nine original studio albums. Live recordings of the group or Tom Rapp solo are somewhat hard to find but worth the effort, they were excellent live. I've made the bold move of choosing 6 songs to showcase here, but some of them are fairly short and I don't expect any of them to generate much in the way of conversation. There are at least three others I would dearly have liked to post. I have included lyrics for each selection. I didn't choose anything from their first and most convention-shattering album, "One Nation Underground." It is currently available in full on youtube and highly recommended. If you haven't heard them before and decide you want to hear more, that would be the best place to start. Theirs is a catalog that works well for discovery in chronological order. If you have heard them before and have written them off as something you aren't interested in, I urge you to give at least a couple of these songs a try just to make sure. If you are already a fan I would love to hear about it and if you don't like them, I welcome that feedback too. Have fun and thank you for listening!
"I Saw The World" from the album Balaklava (1968) I saw the world spinning like a toy spinning like a toy Hate seems so small compared to it all so why don't you do joy Why must you stand holding your own hand why won't you see me why won't you help me why won't you love me Hate is a chain it all comes back again it all comes back again Everything you do returns at last to you so why don't you do love Why must you stand holding your own hand why won't you see me why won't you help me why won't you love me I saw the world spinning like a toy spinning like a toy
"Sail Away" from the album These Things Too (1969) I have just come back from the land beyond the mountain this is not a story I was told when all the people are made out of wood They build their houses of bones Sail away oh sail away the edge of the world is near sail away oh sail away from here I have just come back from the land beyond the mountain all the cigarettes are hand rolled nothing is bought and nobody is sold and everything's made of gold Sail away oh sail away the edge of the world is near sail away oh sail away from here I have just come back from the land beyond the mountain there a man with wounds I did see said: I do not want to escape from reality I want reality to escape from me Sail away oh sail away the edge of the world is near sail away oh sail away Sail away oh sail away the edge of the world is near sail away oh sail away Sail away oh sail away the edge of the world is near sail away oh sail away Sail away
"Margery" from the album The Use Of Ashes (1970) Margery I am a wanderer the ocean is my home In the green salt magic of the sea and the mysteries of sand There are supermarket maladies a sickness on the hill all the good men are in prison there's something wrong somewhere Wisdom hides in bullets now friendship in a sneer and I must find out why before I come back here A friend is in the army now another is in jail there is a blackness on the land nobody is well Margery, oh Margery everything's in chains and everyone is blinded to the sanctity of change There are prayers to paralysis a mass for misery everyone is so far awy from where he ought to be Margery I must go now I must go until I find this land at peace and everyone comes home Margery I am a wanderer the ocean is my home in the green salt magic of the sea and the mysteries of sand
"Once Upon A Time" from the album City Of Gold (1971) Once upon a time in a faraway land you know I don't mean here well the old men shook with fear as the water rose The fishes knew the signs that there is a tide the children they called it change but the old men in their chains what they did not know they called it sin and so the water rose All across the land the old men thundered "Pile stone on stone a wall's our only hope" but the children they only laughed The moral of this song this made-up story: Don't build a wall of stone you only have to learn to float well I guess the fishes told the children 'cause they know
"Epitaph" from the album Beautiful Lies You Could Live In (1971) These in the day when heaven was falling the hour when earth′s foundations fled followed their mercenary calling took their wages and are dead took their wages and are dead Their shoulders held the sky suspended they stood on earth's foundations stay what God abandoned these defended saved the sum of things for pay saved the sum of things for pay (from a poem by A. E. Houseman)
"Images Of April" from the album Balaklava (1968) Images of April summer in the air April in your hair all is gone I remember days inside your mind The brave new mirror I would find all is gone The sea has left the sand the sun has left the land as helpless as my empty hand all is gone You are sunlight in another dawn a voice inside another song all is gone
Tom Rapp/Pearls Before Swine original album discography: One Nation Underground (1967) ESP Disk ESP-1054 Another Time; Playmate; Ballad To An Amber Lady; (Oh Dear) Miss Morse; Drop Out!/Morning Song; Regions Of May; Uncle John; I Shall Not Care; The Surrealist Waltz. Balaklava (1968) ESP Disk ESP-1075 Trumpeter Landfrey; Translucent Carriages; Images Of April; There Was A Man; I Saw The World; Guardian Angels/Suzanne; Lepers And Roses; Florence Nightengale; Ring Thing. These Things Too (1969) Reprise Records RS 6364 Footnote; Sail Away; Look Into Her Eyes; I Shall Be Released; Frog In The Window (Reprise); I'm Going To City; Man In The Tree/If You Don't Want To (I Don't Mind); Green And Blue; Mon Amour; Wizard Of Is; Frog In The Window; When I Was A Child; These Things Too. The Use Of Ashes (1970) Reprise Records RS 6405 The Jeweler; From The Movie Of The Same Name; Rocket Man; God Save The Child; Song About A Rose/Tell Me Why; Margery; The Old Man; The Riegal; When The War Began. City Of Gold (1971) RS 6442 Sonnet #65; Once Upon A Time; Raindrops; City Of Gold; Nancy/Seasons In The Sun; My Father; The Man; Casablanca; Wedding; Did You Dream Of. ...Beautiful Lies You Could Live in (1971) Reprise Records RS 6467 Snow Queen; A Life; Butterflies; Simple Things; Everybody's Got Pain/Bird On A Wire; Island Lady; Come To Me; Freedom; She's Gone; Epitaph. Tom Rapp - Familiar Songs (1972) Reprise Records MS 2069 Grace Street; The Jeweler; Rocket Man; Snow Queen; If You Don't Want To (I Don't Mind)/Charley And The Lady; Margery; Medley: Full Phantom Five / I Shall Not Care; These Things Too; Sail Away. Tom Rapp - Stardancer (1972) Blue Thumb Records BTS-44 Fourth Day Of July; For The Dead In Space; The Baptist; Summer Of '55; Tiny Song/Stardancer; Marshall; Why Should I Care; Touch Tripping; Les Ans. Tom Rapp - Sunforest (1973) Blue Thumb Records BTS-56 Comin' Back; Prayers Of Action; Forbidden City; Love / Sex; Harding Street/Blind River; Someplace To Belong; Sunforest; Sunshine & Charles. Tom Rapp - A Journal Of The Plague Year (1999) Woronzow Records WOO 35 (UK) Silver Apples (A Cappella); The Swimmer (For Kurt Cobain); Blind; Space; Mars; Hopelessly Romantic/Running In My Dream; Wedding Song; Silver Apples II (For Simeon); Shoebox Symphony: 1)Where Is Love? 2)State U 3)Just Let The Grass Grow. Pearls Before Swine - Wikipedia
Understood. It is a bit nerve wracking. Uh oh! You were scaring me on the build-up, being the conventional chap that I am (ha ha), but I like your track 1. First time hearing Pearls Before Swine, by the way.
Pearls Before Swine. Heard the name before, and obviously taken from the biblical verse. Only had time to listen to the first two at this stage... my morning was ambushed by sidetracks and waiting, and now I'm behind and in a hurry... Hopefully I can get a bit of time later. They sound pretty good.
A kick-ass version of ‘Hitchhiker’ is on ‘Calling Cortez.’ My other favorites are ‘Boxcar,’ ‘Powderfinger,’ ‘Little Wing’ and ‘Campaigner’ on a bandcamp-only release.
