Hope everyone is spending a nice weekend. For those of us living in the U.S.A., it may be a long one with Indigenous Peoples’ Day coming up on Monday. Regardless of your geographic location, I hope you’ll join me on other imaginary journey with the magical music time machine. All aboard!
Andreas Vollenweider/Belladonna
Our first stop today is the tiny town of Thalwil, Switzerland, the birth place of Swiss electroacoustic harpist Andreas Vollenweider. In an October 1984 concert preview, The New York Times characterized his music as “swirling atmospheric …, which evokes nature, magic and fairy tales.” His work is generally categorized as new age. Whatever you call it, I enjoy the music I’ve heard. Belladonna is a composition from Vollenweider’s second studio album Caverna Magica. Check the neat transformation from a slow mellow tune into a more up-tempo Latin style track with backing vocals by Swiss singer-songwriter Corin Curschellas. It ain’t jazz, but I think it’s just as worthy to kick off a Sunday Six!
Buddy Holly/Everyday
While the ’50s are a frequent destination on these weekly excursions, for the most part the stops are jazz-related. Today, I propose an alternative that takes us to February 1958 and Buddy Holly’s eponymous album. Like on November 1957’s The “Chirping” Crickets, the Texan singer-songwriter and ’50s rock & roll pioneer was backed by his band The Crickets. But if I recall it correctly, for label contractual reasons, his self-titled album couldn’t officially appear under the name of The Crickets. Here’s the beautiful Everyday, penned by Holly and co-producer Norman Petty. I was pleased to see it’s Holly’s most streamed song on Spotify with 100.2 million streams, though had you asked me, I would have guessed it was Peggy Sue, which is second at 62.3 million streams. Not only did both of these gems appear on the same album, but they also were released on the same single, with Everyday being the B-side.
Diamond Dogs/Wring It Out
If you happened to read my weekly new music post from last Saturday, the name Diamonds Dogs may ring a bell. And nope, I’m not talking about the David Bowie song, though I dig that one as well. While Diamond Dogs were formed in the late ’90s, you could be forgiven if you thought the Swedish rock band were a ’70s act. I’ll give you Wring It Out, off their brand new album About the Hardest Nut to Crack, which came out on September 29. This is smoking hot rock & roll, baby, which you could easily picture on a Faces album!
John Hiatt/Your Love Is My Rest
If you’ve followed my blog for some time or are aware of my music taste otherwise, you know how much I’ve come to dig John Hiatt. While his songs have been covered by the likes of Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Joe Cocker, Joan Baez and Delbert McClinton, to name a few, and some of these covers became hits, mainstream chart success largely escaped Hiatt. Your Love Is My Rest is from Hiatt’s October 1995 studio album Walk On. It peaked at no. 48 on the Billboard 200, making it one of his highest charting albums on the U.S. pop chart. Hiatt has done much better on Billboard’s Independent Albums, where since 2000 all of his charting albums reached the top 20.
Ultimate Spinach/Jazz Thing
Today’s trip may skip a jazz stop, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t visit a song with a jazzy groove, which its title acknowledges. Ultimate Spinach were a short-lived American psychedelic rock band from Boston, Mass. That said, during their two-year run from 1967-1969, three albums appeared under their name, though by the time production of their final studio release Ultimate Spinach III began, technically, the group had already broken up. If all of this feels to you like a listening tip from my longtime German music friend Gerd, you’re spot on! Here’s that Jazz Thing, a cool track off the group’s sophomore release Behold & See, which came out in August 1968. Like all other songs on the album, it was written by the band’s lead vocalist Ian Bruce-Douglas who also played multiple instruments.
Uriah Heep/Bird of Prey
And once again it’s time for our final stop. I hope you’re still with me and, if yes, I won’t lose you with this pick. Coz let’s face it, English rock band Uriah Heep can sound slightly weird and certainly aren’t for everybody. I still remember when in ca. 1980 I got their second album Salisbury on vinyl, my six-year-older sister who accompanied me to the record store felt embarrassed! Yes, David Byron’s falsetto vocals could reach astronomic highs, but it didn’t take long for me not only to tolerate but even like them outright! Nuff talk, let’s kick some ass with Salisbury’s opener Bird of Prey. Credited to Byron and his bandmates Mick Box (lead guitar), Ken Hensley (keyboards and multiple other instruments, backing vocals) and Paul Newton (bass, backing vocals), the song initially appeared in December 1970 as the B-side to Uriah Heep’s European debut single Gypsy. It also was included on the U.S. version of their debut album …Very ‘Eavy …Very ‘Umble, which came out in August 1970. The band re-recorded Bird of Prey for Salisbury, released in January 1971. Perhaps that’s more than you wanted to know, so let’s just play the bloody song!
Ghosh, that was weird but dang it, Bird of Prey rocks! 🙂
Last but not least, here’s a Spotify playlist of the above goodies. See ya later, aligator!
Sources: Wikipedia; The New York Times; YouTube; Spotify
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