I Blame His Parents !

When I was a nipper, in the golden day's when playing with toy cars, Lego, and train sets was a legitimate pastime, all was not sweet on the music front.

Being made to listen to, 'two way family favorites' on a Sunday lunchtime, whilst eating was just plain boring. If that was not enough before or after, at some point my dad would play some vinyl (cutting edge technology in them days), and at some point Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee or the like would surface.

Why Oh why did they not like pop music ? When challenged by my elder brothers & sister, they would bring out something hideous by Frank Ifield or The Seekers to play, missing the point entirely.

Aged seven, I new the difference between The Beatles and the likes of Freddie and the Dreamers, I could tell the serious from the wannabes, whilst my poor old parents just lived in the past, which was so boring !

Whatever the lesson from this is, I was absolutely bowled over, when a few weeks ago, i got hold of a 1968 boot of Frank Sinatra. The audio quality is in context excellent, and the memories it bought back were suitably rose tinted, you know I actually have played it, enjoyed it, and with pride and joy burnt a copy for my dad.

Mind you it took a while explaining what a bootleg is, and that stereo boots from the 1960's, oh you get the picture !

Tonight I heard by chance a clip of Peggy Lee used on a trailer for a forthcoming documentary. This prompted me to do this post. Again, rather than cringe and relive childhood horror's of the punishment that passed as music, my first reaction was, I must get hold of a copy of that.

I guess this is all part of the process of growing older (or growing up - however I am consciously fighting the latter).

So for your audio enjoyment here are two from Ol Blue Eyes Boot.

Links Removed - MP3 Policy.

Frank Sinatra-Ive Got You Under My Skin-Live1968.mp3

Frank Sinatra-Fly Me To The Moon-Live1968.mp3

Plus:

Peggy Lee - Is That All There Is.mp3

Judy Garland - Somewhere Over The Rainbow.mp3

As always The Beehive Candy Store is prepared for any desire to purchase Frank Sinatra - just CLICK HERE!

A Trip With The Beatles - Part Three

The 'Get Back' or 'Twickenham sessions', took place in 1969.

Paul McCartney, wanted to get The Beatles playing together again as opposed to just recording. It was an opportunity to help the band gel together again, have some fun, and maybe lead to some new live performances.

It was also a chance for band members to share new material, some of which would surface later on solo albums.

In the end the now legendary roof top performance, was all that was to happen, as public performance's go.

The actual sessions were filmed, and each film reel was accompanied by a mono soundtrack.

The soundtrack has surfaced in different forms down the years. Recently I acquired the full soundtrack set, from a generation of copies quite close to the originals (so the sound quality is very good).

These copies are not broken down into individual songs, rather they are inclusive of what was included on the film reel in use. I will when time permits try and edit these down to songs, to help, I do at least have a full song listing from a boot series circulated some time ago.

One of the best known bootlegs from these performances, that has done the rounds for some time is 'The Corn Of Apple', or 'The Core of Apple'. Lost in translation, the 'Corn' typing error seems to be the more widely circulated version, indeed the cover of my copy has 'corn' rather than 'core'...

From this CD I have two tracks to share.

The Beatles-Isn't It A Pity.mp3

The Beatles-Get Back-Geh Raus-German Lyrics.mp3

Those days playing in Hamburg, certainly paid off, they are up there with Elvis Presley's Wooden Heart. Mind you Elvis did his army conscription in Germany.

Perhaps it should me mandatory for all 'boy' bands to play live in Germany for a couple of years before hitting the big time in the UK, if you follow my drift.

The Beatles are included in The Beehive Candy Store.

Anorak Corner - Part One

An anorak wanders slowly across the screen, in search of music past.

I am getting older, no longer a teenager. Was it really so long ago ?

Milestones come and go, do we now start to say "in my day we did things differently", with a sense of superiority ?

Technology has moved on, ask a younger person how do you listen to music ? Don't cringe at the answer. Accept that mp3 players, I Pods, Lime wire, file sharing, and mobile phones are probably out of date as you read this.

FM radio is still a dominant music medium, that younger listeners moan a lot less about than us old dinosaurs.

DAB sucks, this is not the future, it is an intermediary, sucking billions in cash, and looking increasingly nervous, as Satellite radio or DRM may provide better platforms. This may be 'Beta-max's revenge against JVC.

Whatever. If you order an Indian, Chinese, or Pizza meal with delivery, do you spend hours agonizing over what vehicle will pull up outside your home? Come on, hot, fresh, tasty, appearance, smell...

So the golden days of offshore radio may be over. I have never had so much choice on broadband, Sky, FM, and so on. A lot of it sucks as far as I am concerned, however, I have never had so much choice in discovering new music, artists, and genre's. It just takes a little effort, however I like my music, so a little effort is no bad thing.

I listen to Radio Caroline, via Sky 0199, and broadband, because of the mix of music, and my nostalgic memories. There are plenty of other providers however, and some provide a choice more akin to my musical taste.

So with some reflection, I also listen to Caroline because of what they have done for music radio down the years. I know this, my children know this, because they have had to put up with my lectures on the subject (at least it's a colourful subject).

Therefore the Anorak Series, will be a nostalgia trip, for a diminishing group of er 'anoraks'.

Back in the early 1970's in the heady day's of Radio North-sea International, this little tender trip begins. Spot an odd one out..

SORRY LINKS NOW REMOVED - SEE BEEHIVE CANDY MP3 POLICY

Arrival-Friends.mp3

Peter Gosling-Peace.mp3

Bolland and Bolland-Time of Your Life.mp3

A Trip With The Beatles - Part Two

In part one of this series, I used the first CD from the mythology boot series. Mythology is such a large collection, that it would be easy just to source from that.

It seems rather pointless to just keep dipping into this, especially as you can purchase the official Anthology series, especially if various outtakes, or work in progress versions are your bag.

So I will try and expand out on The Beatles rarities trail. The Beatles took a conscious decision to stop performing live, and most live recordings from the USA tours that I have heard feature the screaming audience rather than the band.

As a consequence the rehearsals for albums in the studio, have thrown up some real gems, as often the band would play 'live' without the audience. One of the best set of sessions are the 'Twickenham' or 'Get Back' sessions. This is a story in it's own right, and will be featured another time, it deserves the attention.

In 1968 The Beatles were both at Trident and EMI studios in London. Some excellent (performance and recording quality) material from sessions played, are on the bootleg 'Lord of Madness'. I have uploaded tracks 1 & 3, for your enjoyment.

The Beatles - Hey Jude - Lord of Madness.mp3

The Beatles - I'm So Tired - Lord of Madness.mp3

I have added the first Beatles dedicated page in The Beehive Candy Store, with as usual some absolute bargains to consider. Click HERE to visit.

The Black Crowes - A Taster

The Black Crowes are put simply what rock music is all about.

This is just a taster with more to follow. You see live or in the studio, The Black Crowes are just a rock'n'roll band - that's what they do!

Bootlegged like there is no tomorrow, their rarities are ironically hardly rare.

On their latest tour Cd's of the gig are available right after, or you can purchase from a comprehensive collection on their website.

More about them another time, from 2005, here's a couple of great boots, if you are not familiar, download and enjoy, if you are you are already downloading.

The Black Crowes - By Your Side - Live 2005.mp3

The Black Crowes - Share The Ride - Live2005.mp3

For a selection of Black Crowes CD'S to purchase from The Beehive Candy Store click HERE.

Bowie Boots

The first David Bowie gig I attended was at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon south of London in 1973.

This was towards the end of the UK 'Ziggy Stardust' tour, and both he and the band were on form.

The heady days of glam rock, platform shoes, flared trousers, long hair (in my case very long - half way down my back - OK I was a teenager, not an ageing hippy!).

So I was really pleased to acquire a copy of the Santa Monica concert from the previous year, in sparkling soundboard quality.

For the Bowie anorak (who probably knows all this anyway) details are - Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, 20th October 1972.

The evening was cool in Los Angeles, and as the auditorium is about a 100 yards from the beach, the stage area benefited. The concert was broadcast on FM radio, and recorded for RCA records.

The bootleg that subsequently emerged was of high quality for the time.

From the gig.

David Bowie-Live Santa Monica 1972-Ziggy Stardust.mp3

David Bowie-Live Santa Monica 1972-The Width of a Circle.mp3

David Bowie-Live Santa Monica 1972-John Im Only Dancing.mp3

To Buy David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust at a bargain price click HERE.

Female Voice

Under represented in many musical genres, women musicians and singers, would dominate my personal top 100 song favorites these day.

Bearing in mind one persons pleasure is another persons poison, heres a selection of examples featured in 'female voices' within the Beehive Candy store.

In no particular order or preference, for your pleasure, expect more in weeks to come.

SORRY LINKS NOW REMOVED - SEE THE BEEHIVE CANDY MP3 POLICY

Gillian Welch-My Morphine.mp3

Kathleen Edwards-Away.mp3

Patsy Cline-Crazy.mp3

Siouxsie and the Banshees- The Last Beat of my Heart.mp3