“All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey”… reminds me of home. I don’t dream of California, though I’m sure it’s a beautiful place… but maybe I’ll dream of my desert island instead. I like this version because at around a minute and a half into it there’s a wonderful saxophone solo, that makes it for me, plus The Beach Boys harmony. There can’t be many who don’t have at least one of their songs in their collection… I’ve got tons of ‘em, but I’ll post just this one.

It’s been quite a busy day with all this blogging stuff, but I’m catching up. So now I’m going to sit by the fire and watch the sparks rise up into the night sky, warm my hands round my coffee cup and dream about… not California… but brown leaves and grey skies… home. Autumn is on the way, it would be great to be safe and warm on a desert island, endless sunshine and sand, but I’d still miss going for a walk on a winters day.

I’d read a review of the album in Melody Maker, or the NME, whichever, but the guy who wrote the review couldn’t speak highly enough of it, he raved about it. So on the strength of that I went out and bought it, took it home and listened to it… then listened to it again. It’s a fantastic album with some great songs on it but Ramon’s Blues was the one I played over and over.

I have a few Roy Buchanan albums, they’re all good. He had a style all of his own.. his own unique sound that came out of a 1953 Telecaster, he was an incredibly talented guitarist who could play in many styles and he’d been recording since 1957 and was a prolific live performer. I’d have Loading Zone in my desert island collection but if I had to trim it down to one track, this would be it.

It’s an unfortunate thing that he’s no longer around, he died in a police cell in 1988 after being arrested for being intoxicated. The story is a little controversial, he hung himself in his cell… others say it happened differently, either way it’s a sad story but like so many others he had a history of alcohol and substance abuse… which is a shame. But I’m not here to judge the guy, I’ll just judge him on his music.. which is brilliant… and he was a brilliant musician and that’s enough for me.

If you’re into electric blues guitar, have a listen. Look him up on the internet, there are many sites dedicated to him… and so there should be. Sitting by the fire on my beach listening to this… well, I don’t think it gets much better.
Roy Buchanan, incredible talent.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd, awesome guitarist. I first heard of him around the time that he released the album that this next song is taken from, it will have been 1996/97.. not sure which. I think I saw him on a show on VH1… can’t quite remember, but there was a short interview with him and then they played this song. It’s called “Blue on Black”.. the third track on the album “Trouble Is..”

I wrote it down on piece of paper for future reference and the next time I was in town I went to all the record stores trying to find it. I ended up finding it in the specialist section of the biggest music store there, it took me ages to find it… they had just the one copy left. It’s a very good album.

The thing that struck me most about watching him on the TV that night was how young he was, and how well he played for such a young person. I’ve done a bit of mental arithmatic here, and by my reckoning he was just around twenty years old when he recorded this song… such talent for such a young man… anyway, the album turned out to be a platinum seller and I’m not surprised. There are some great tracks on Trouble Is… but this is, without doubt, my favourite. The guitar playing is second to none.

So, while I’m trying to knock this place back into shape you can have a listen for yourself, you’ll soon pick the words up to sing along. Meanwhile I’ll try out a couple more themes and tidy up the picture of my imaginary desert island home up there, then maybe get a fire crackling away on the beach and chill out with some good music.

During the last few weeks, along with all the other stuff I’ve been doing, my computer suffered a catastrophic failure.. disaster. After trying a new hard drive, new memory, trying to do a clean install of the system, all to no avail, it became apparent that I’d have to go out and buy a new tower. After getting everything back to normal I thought I’d be able to get some stuff posted on here, but it didn’t happen. Other things just got in the way of it so I had to put this on the back burner for a while.. weeks turn to months… and there you have it.

When my system self destructed the thought crossed my mind about how bad that would be if I really were stranded on an island, having all this music to entertain me would be pointless if I had nothing to play it with, if my imaginary laptop frazzled itself. How frustrating would that be?… all this music stored on there and no way of fixing it. Maybe those old wind-up gramophones weren’t such a bad thing, just wind it up and let it play. But then again, I’d have had to make sure I salvaged the huge pile of vinyl records to play on it… no, the laptop stores it all now.. the digital age. We’re spoiled these days.

And so to the music.. and I’m posting two song here because it’s been such a while since I posted anything at all …. and because I feel like it. The first song is from Ravi and the Afro Brazilian Project. I got this as a free download from Calabash music, a great website for world music, there’s a link over there. The song is called ” 21 String Samba”.. and it’s brilliant, just the sort of music for a desert island.. or anywhere else for that matter. Look it up on Calabash, you can listen to more songs there. In the meantime you can have a listen to this and see what you think. I love all this world fusion stuff.

The second song is from Molotov, a Mexican band, and some serious latino music. I got this on some compilation cd that a friend gave to me, the song is called “Voto Latino”. From what I’ve read of Molotov their lyrics can be a little controversial… but their lyrics don’t offend me because I don’t know what the hell they’re singing about… and anyway, this song’s too good to cause offence.

Two songs, perfect for an evening on the beach of a desert island… providing you’re laptop hasn’t fried in the heat or something. Stuck in the middle of nowhere and no music to play?… I shudder at the thought.

Okay, enough of my dull routine and back to the songs for the desert island collection. This next song is a strange one, I don’t think it was ever a hit.. I may be wrong but I don’t think so. And from what I can gather from the internet it’s rare now, I know it took me ages to get hold of it.. don’t ask where from because I have no idea where I eventually found it. But find it I did and I’m pleased about that.

Lindisfarne were never my cup of tea really, not that I didn’t like them, I did, but I never had any of their songs when they were out and in the charts. Fog On The Tyne.. Lady Elenore… Run For Home.. these songs were all hits for them in the ’70′s… I do like Lady Elenore and have it now. But the song I’m posting.. Juke Box Gypsy.. is by far the best song I heard them play. Very catchy. I’ve never heard it on the radio, in fact I’ve never heard it played anywhere apart from where I first came across it.

There’s a bar not far from where I live, it’s called The Junction.. and I used to frequent the place quite a bit back in the late ’70′s. It’s all changed now so I don’t bother, can’t remember the last time I was in there… anyway, it had two small rooms, one a lounge type thing and the other a pool room. In the pool room was a very good old jukebox, a Wurlitzer, and it had the most wonderful selection of songs on it.. and you got quite a few selections for your money, reasonable, so it was always playing. So I’m in there one Friday evening with a group of friends, the bar was a little rough around the edges so it was always a bit “lively”.. if you know what I mean, and therefore I liked it. So I’m in there chatting away and having a few beers when this song comes on the jukebox, I started half listening to it while trying to hold a conversation but noticed that there were people singing along to it, really enjoying themselves. By the time I started paying enough attention the song was finished, it’s only a short song, so I went over to the jukebox and started looking through the songs to see if I could find it, I couldn’t. Anyway, as I’m stood there a guy comes up and puts a coin in and makes a few selections, straight away the song starts playing again.. “who’s this?.. I ask him…”Lindisfarne” he says.. “What?… this?… this is Lindisfarne?”… “yeah, it’s them, good isn’t it?”.. and so the conversation went on. I must say I was surprised because it wasn’t the sort of song I expected to hear them play. But by now everyone’s dancing and carrying on in this pool room… to Lindisfarne? but on listening to it I understood why. The song is a very happy one, good times.. happy days, and it rocks along nicely for almost three minutes. When it stopped it wasn’t long before it was back on again and everyone’s singing away. And so it went that everytime I went in there I’d shove a coin in the jukebox and have it playing in no time. I love it.

After I stopped going in there I forgot about it, totally, until someone mentioned it to me a few years back. I set out to find it, couldn’t.. kept trying and eventually downloaded it from some site or other, as I say, it’s rare. I have honestly never heard it anywhere else, not on any other jukebox, anywhere, never. But I’ll tell you what, it’s in the desert island collection like a shot… it has to be.. I still dance around to it for goodness sake. It goes with me everywhere on my mp3, it cheers me up. So as it’s been a bit quiet up there on my beach for the last week or so we’ll liven it up again, and it’s Saturday night. Vodka time, I think… several tonight, for no other reason than that I feel like it. It would be great to have that old Jukebox in my shack, but we’ll pretend.. I’ll slip a little flat pebble (instead of a coin) under the laptop and select Juke Box Gypsy.. can’t remember the number, we’ll say F 7.. and then on it comes. Anyone care for a dance?

I’d have this music in the desert island collection for sure, I’ve been listening to music long enough to know a great song when I hear one, this is a great song. It’s from their album called “Twice on Sunday”… an album which, in my opinion, doesn’t have a single bad track on it.. there are twelve, and that’s not something you can say about a lot of albums. I’ve paid good money for albums by mainstream bands, many times, and been disappointed with some of the stuff on them.. but I wouldn’t be able to say that about Twice on Sunday.

To enable you to listen to the song for yourself I’ll have to link you to the IAC page where it’s hosted. Once there just click the play button and it’ll launch through the IAC player. Here it is RICH MAN, POOR MAN … do yourself a favour and take the time to listen to it, if you like rock music you’ll love it. In fact I’ll go a step further and give you a link to their Soundclick page and you can listen to the whole album, it’s here, same again, click the play buttons to launch the player.

Music for my desert island hard drive?.. most definately. I’ve never heard of Campbell River before, all I know is that it’s a hell of a long way from where I’m sat at the moment. And I don’t suppose they’ll think that there’s a guy listening to their music somewhere in the UK.. but there is, I listen to it often and I love it. So click the link and join me.. it’s brilliant.

Sticky Fingers was the album…1971 the year, and The Rolling Stones just letting rip… Can’t You Hear Me Knocking is the song. This is how I love The Stones to play, this is their sound, and when they play like this there aren’t many bands to come near them. Keith Richards and Mick Taylor on guitars (the best Stones guitar combination for me)… Bobby Keys on saxophone, and of course the voice of Mick Jagger… this is them at their best. It’s on the soundtrack of a movie called “Blow”… never seen it.. don’t want to… I just like cranking the speakers up and playing this song. No other reason.

Crack open a beer, turn the volume up, click the play button and blow the cobwebs out. No more needs to be said. Short post but I don’t care.. I’ll re-fit the door on the beach shack in the morning.

His career has been long and varied, he’s recorded with some of the best out there but it’s his solo stuff that I love. The first time I heard Lido Shuffle I was blown away.. loved it, still do.. and Lowdown, these are Boz Scaggs classics. Lido Shuffle is still played a lot on the radio here today, it’s totally timeless and everyone sings along to it… even though half of them don’t know who the heck’s singing it. He still tours each summer, he’s one of the artists I’d love to see playing live.. doubt I’ll ever get the chance so I’ll just have to make do with listening to his records… and I do that often. I never, ever get tired of listening to Boz Scaggs.

But the song I’m posting here isn’t one of his well known hit songs, it’s called “Some Change” and it was released in 1994. It’s one of the coolest songs I have, laid back.. but it still rocks.. if you understand what I mean.. The whole album is brilliant, but this is the best track on it. The guy just surrounds himself with excellent musicians, goes into a studio and produces great music like this. I just can’t say enough about him, I’ve listened to his music for over thirty years and I enjoy listening to it as much now as I did back in the 1970′s when I first heard Silk Degrees… as sweet as drinking freshly brewed coconut vodka… think I’ll try one or two now while good ol’ Boz does his stuff.

I knew all her hit songs from the radio, she was on the TV often.. always wore a long ballgown and had tons of eye make up on, real sixties look. But every time I saw her performing on TV she did impress me with her voice. She had a very soulful voice, quite unique in a way.. very distinctive.

The next song in the desert island collection is called Spooky… not one of her major hits, in fact it’s hard to find much info on the song at all. I think it’s from 1970, but I’m not sure.. all I know is that it’s one of the best songs to chill out to that I’ve got. It was used on some TV commercial or other.. aren’t they all?… and after hearing it I went and got the song. Not much more to say about it really, it’s the end of a busy week and I feel like chillin’ out.. it’s Friday evening after all.. and one of the those Friday evenings when I wish I really were on a desert island. So I’ll post the song, then sit back with a coffee and let Dusty Springfield’s voice drift around my little office here, close my eyes and conjure up the image of sitting on the porch of my beach shack. Not many songs can free up your mind like this… so into the collection it goes, it’s real quality music., lovely voice.

I just don’t know what it is about songs like this, I mean, they just get into my brain and I could play them over and over.. and I do, often. I really like disco music, I used to love going to disco’s… not so much for the dancing but to just have a good time with friends and have a few beers. But if the mood took me I’d be on the dance floor giving all I’d got… that was mainly due to the alcohol I’d consumed of course, and it’s not unknown for me to dance until dawn even today.. although it takes me slightly longer to recover the day after these days. But what the hell?.., you only live once, and once the music’s pumping out and the beer’s flowing.. well… I’m off with the fairies, dancing on my own or with anyone else who has the inclination to show themselves up with me… and I love it!

So, to the song. The Moments. They had a few hits during the ’70′s, disco stuff, most of them slow.. Girls (part1) is one I remember.., which I thought was rubbish.. but in either 1975 or ’76, not sure which, they did a song called Dolly My Love, a much quicker, funkier song and it was quite a big hit in the UK. The song has a very catchy keyboard riff that plays throughout, in fact it’s a really good song. I’ve no idea if it was a hit anywhere else…, I didn’t buy it at the time but it’s one that I tracked down years later after hearing it on the radio… must have had a flashback to my disco days and had to go and get it. It’s on my mp3 player.., I’d never be without it. Because you see.., when it comes down to it I don’t care what sort of music, which genre or anything it is…, I don’t care. All I care about with music is that when I play it it makes me happy, brings back happy memories.. whatever.. but it has to be good. This song, in my opinion, is good. Put this on at a party and you’ll have ‘em dancing in no time… works every time, never fails, and everyone has a smile on their face. That’s what music’s all about.

I’d dance until dawn on my beach up there whenever the mood took me, shuffling my feet around in the sand and whizzing around the campfire looking like an idiot.., but who cares? So, get the disco ball out, sprinkle some talcum powder on the floor boards so your feet will slide easy, beer in one hand.. and off you go. Ahh, the memories… The Moments.. what a great song.