I am currently reading Ian Clayton's Bringing it all back home which is very funny and also touching. There is an account in there of a friend of his who had a penchant for making up stories.It had me in stitches:-

'Geoff Raybould, another spinner of bizarre yarns told me he'd had a hand in writing Paul Simons song 'Homeward Bound'.Geoff loved to tell the story of when he was a young train driver in the mid-sixties.
'I was sitting in my cab at Widnes railway station and I saw this little student sitting on his own with a guitar, he looked right miserable. I asked him what he was doing. He said,'I'm just sittin' on this railway station'. So I said, 'Have you got a ticket?' He said, 'Yeh!' I asked him where he was going and he said 'Homeward bound'. I told him, 'I wish I was.''

In true Word fashion I am pretty sure we could make up some fantastic additions to songs if we put our minds to it.

I feel that my love of visiting record shops was taken away from me by stealth. Yes there has been a decline in sales but you could say that it has been deliberate in some way with the likes of Virgin and HMV selling lower online than in their stores. HMV for one are now trying to address this somewhat - hello guys the horse has already bolted so you can leave the barn door open!!
I buy pretty much all of my stuff online these days - I didnt want to but the corporate idiots made me do it. I would still like to visit friendly independent record stores and dont necessarily mind if they are not selling at rock bottom cheap prices. I am in many parts of the country at different times usually with an hour or so to kill and would like nothing more than to visit local stores. Maybe we can compile a list of good record store locations along the lines of the Album cover atlas.

I recall the heady days of my teenage years - specifically the time when I was 14/15 and my mates and I were hellbent on forming our own band.Never mind that only one of us could play and that he would optimistically be described as average.We were going to be Rock stars!! First we furiously debated the name for the group. Endless nights of discussion ensued and we came up with 'Rat Salad' a name taken from a Black Sabbath album track. And then the lineup:-

Wonky Webb - Drums. Chosen because his much older brother played the drums in a band and we assumed this would mean that genetically he would have the same ability. His brother preached to us that Buddy Rich was the greatests drummer in the world and then proceeded to bore us with endless solos on endless albums.

Mouldy Merv - Lead Guitar. Cruelly named because of his facial acne Mouldy could actually play the guitar a little bit and had an advantage that he already had the guitar and the amp. His speciality was Sunshine of your love - not too bad until it is played ad infinitum with missing notes and at varying tempos.

Myself aka Twink or Twinkle - Electric Sax with Wah Wah pedal. We never knew if such an instrument actually existed but that is what we were having. Not sure why I was selected to play Sax although I did play recorder at school - my speciality was Strangers in the night. Bloody awful.

Jonesy - Bass guitar, keyboards and vocals. He was a no brainer for vocal duties as he was the only one who could sing in tune. Jonesy was my bast mate but was also a massive ELP fan - a band I could never get into.
If the band had ever got past the embryonic stage I am sure we would have imploded very quickly thereafter citing 'irreconcilable musical differences'.

Anyone else had a musical aspiration that never got off the ground??

Been thinking about the Back to mine series of cd's where artists get to compile an albums worth of tracks that influenced them or are personal favourites. I assume they get paid for making these compilations? Nice work if you can get it.The reality is they are really only the modern equivalent of a mixtape. I am sure we can do much better and sticking to my made up rules of a maximum of 12 tracks that will fit on one cd here is one I made earlier:-

Little Girl blue - Nina Simone
Right in time - Lucinda Williams
Fire it up - Modest Mouse
Late in the evening - Paul Simon
Ramalama (bang bang) - Roisin Murphy
Boops(here to go) - Sly and Robbie
You must be prepared to dream - Ian McNabb
Waiting for the great leap forward - Billy Bragg
Hackensack - Fountains of Wayne
Goodbye Girl - Squeeze
In spite of ourselves - John Prine
Exodus - Jimmy Scott

Not necessarily all time favourites but certainly wouldnt be averse to it appearing as mix cd in my car.

Yesterday I went to the Evolution festival at Gateshead which was an okay day out made special by Reverend and the Makers who I thought were very good. Anyway Duffy appeared and it occurred to me that aside from 'Mercy' her whole repertoire was very samey - her voice is okay, the band were okay but the material lacked dynamics. You couldnt differentiate one song from another to my ears. This doesn't put her in the category of one hit wonder as I am sure she will be around for at least another couple of albums but it does put her in the category of one trick pony.Rather like the Shadows as an example - nothing wrong with them musically but they didnt veeer from that tremolo guitar sound one iota.
Any more examples of One trick ponies?

This week I bought the Bon Iver cd following some glowing reports in the music press. It is very good but I would imagine many a reviewer struggled to adequately describe it as it is somewhat different to anything else i have recently listened to.For me the word that seems to most sum up its qualities is Ethereal. It certainly has an otherworldly quality about it.

What words describe your favourite (and least favourite) albums and/or artists.

Go on to Amazon and order the Proper Folk collection - its the best value for money you can get outside of a packet of condoms!!!

I put this months free CD in the Car CD player and put the cover in the glove box. I listened to and from work and when I got to track 11 a strange sense of familarity overcame me. I knew the song but couldnt recall who it was - it racked my brain for the remainder of my journey home - It was Pete Atkin. I used to have the album Driving through Mythical America that he made with Clive James many many years ago on cassette. I want it again. A quick scan of Amazon offered it as a twofer for £99 - I dont want it that much!!! 2 questions:-

Is the remake album by Pete Atkin any good? Are the songs significantly reworked from the originals?

Any idea where I can get Driving through Mythical America on cd without having to take out a mortgage??

There have been numerous album titles that have meant nothing to me and most often have thought nothing more of them and just got on with the music. One however has intrigued me for many years and that is Steely Dans Pretzel Logic. What on earth does it mean? Scouring the cover I noticed that Pretzel is spelt as Pretzel and also as Pretzle but surely that is not the answer?

Anyone care to shed any light? Any other album titles that have intrigued?

Alabama 3 played Wolverhampton Wulfrun last night - it cost £15.00 and it was a blinding near 2 hour show.
I got a leaflet of forthcoming attractions which incldes:-

Eliza Carthy - £14.00
Mark Ronson - £23.00
Midge Ure - £14.00
Willie Nelson - £30.00
Duffy - £14.00
Guillemots - £14.00
Joe Jackson - £23.50

AND THEN YAZOO - £45.00 - THATS RIGHT!!! FORTY FIVE POUNDS ONLY

Someone should tell them they are really not that good. I saw Erasure last year - similar act, more hit singles, half the price.

As far as I am concerned you can stick your YAZOO up your KAZOO!!!

The phrase 'mixed reviews' generally infers that an album is less than brilliant. The Guillemots new album Red had 'mixed reviews' - personally I think it is excellent and has a cutting edge somewhat lacking in most new stuff released these days. They dare to be different and maybe they have confused the critics because they havent stuck to the same formula as their last album.We rely on critics to point is in the right direction but they are known to retract their original comments from time to time - take for example Dexys Dont Stand me down - universally panned at the time of release, mysteriously it is now a masterpiece.
What other albums are out there that are significantly better than the 'mixed reviews' they received.

There must have been hundreds of thousands of songs written about love over the years and most rarely come up with anything new. A few artists excel at the subject matter but most repeat the 'i love you baby' type drivel to the point where its hard to actually feel anything in most love songs these days.
Just occasionally someone will come up with a one liner that changes all this and for me Elbow do it on the opening song Starlings from their recent release Seldom Seen Kid. The line 'you are everything in any room you're ever in' is simple but brilliant. Who else has elevated Love songs from banality with a killer line and what is said line?

I need help!! There is a re-release of the album Live,Love,Larf and Loaf that Richard recorded with French,Frith and Kaiser. It includes bonus live tracks amongst them is Night comes in which is an early favourite of mine. Is the album worth getting or experimental tosh???
Answers welcome.

but Mark Knopfler is a really strong lyricist.Over familiarity may breed contempt but actually study the lyrics of Money for Nothing and Romeo and Juliet - the former is very wry and ably described the period in which it was written.The second is a great love song with a classic line ' you can fall for chains of silver, you can fall for chains of gold, you can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold'.

Kathleen Edwards has rightly been mentioned on here - Hockey Sticks is a great song.

Was in Zavvi Picadilly Circus this weekend and the new cd by Vampire Weekend was playing. Very good it was too. Sounds a lot like Fountains of Wayne - anyone know any more about them?

I love the Randomiser blog and judging by the number of hits so do most of the rest of 'my friends' on this site. As an extension I am really interested to hear what people are buying at present. What are the last 5 cd's you have bought (or downloaded)? Mine are:-

Sia - Some people have real problems

and winging their way from Amazon in the next day or so:-

Elbow - Seldom seen kid
Alabama 3 - Last train to Mashville
Peter Molinari - a Virtual landslide
Sons and Daughters - This gift

The employees of Word can join in but freebies dont count - they have to be items you have spent money on!!!
Incidentally the Amazon purchase cost £33.00 for 4 cd's incl postage -considerably less than what it would have cost 5 years ago. Its a good argument for me when my wife asks me why I am buying so many cd's.

is what Elvis Costello said in last months issue when questioned about plans to release new material. Given that his label have announced a new album in April it is either the quickest recording ever or he was pulling our plonker!!!
Am looking forward to it though.

What ages some music badly whilst songs that have been around a lot longer still sound fresh today? the Beatles, Stones and Simon and Garfunkel all sound pretty good today. Last week a Prefab Sprout song came up on my IPOD and I had to skip it because it sounded very dated. Likewise Prince on some of his stuff. And here is an odd one the earlier stuff of Steely Dan sounds less dated than the Aja era stuff. Is it the production values? The instrumentation? I really dont think it is the songs.
What else sounds dated these days?

What is it with our favourite artists? In a catalogue of sheer quality there is always a piece of drivel. Elvis Costello has albums of the quality of This Years Model, King of America, Imperial Bedroom and then releases Goodbye Cruel World. Richard Thompson has Shoot out the Lights, Daring Adventures, Mock Tudor and then gives us Mirror Blue and You me us.Steely Dan - brilliance until Aja - this one I know will throw the cat amongst the pidgeons but their earlier stuff was exciting, daring and surprising - this one was just Formulaic. Are there any artists out there that have been consistently brilliant over anything more than a 3-4 album period? They all eventually return to form but why the drop in quality? Is it a mood thing, choice of wrong producer, wrong arrangements. Dont get me wrong even the duds have some redeeming songs such as Love Field on Goodbye Cruel World and Beeswing on Mirror Blue. Tell me someone who hasnt suffered this malaise.

SXSW had intrigued me for a while and I had often thought about investing in a trip there. During my deliberations I sought the views of people in the Music press but the info I was given was pretty vague. I decided to go anyway and it was bloody marvellous. Where else can you go and listen to 4 days of great music, drink free beer,see bands as close as if they were in your living room and all in glorious sunshine? Arriving,we invested in wristbands which thanks to the current parity of the US dollar with the Mexican Peso cost us £80.00 - for 4 days unlimited entrance to every venue in Austin to watch any band out of the near 1700 that were playing the city.For the finale on saturday I saw Liam Finn,The Ting Tings,Sons and Daughters, Ian McLagen bump band,Eric Bibb,Carbon Silicon, Alabama 3 and the imperious live performance of the reformed Was not Was.This day alone was worth the admission price.Particular highlights of the week were Shelby Lynne performing in a record store highlights of her recent Dusty tribute.This was a highly emotive performance for her and she was close to tears when explaining that it was the most difficult of the 10 albums she has made as she needed to know that Miss Springfield would be happy with her efforts.Shelby you delivered big time!!! (Biggest regret is that I already owned the cd so didn't get a signed copy).
Early in the week Martha Wainwright welcomed Daniel Lanois onto her stage to perform with her. He proceeded to talk about her musical family and how this generally made people better performers. I didnt take much notice of the comments until I saw Liam Finn on the friday night. I had arrived at the Ale House early to see Chuck Prophet - the preceding set was by Liam Finn and it blew me away. He has energy to burn, melodies to die for and the guitar and loops he employed plus his manic drumming produced a level of excitement not experienced by me for many a year. I was so taken by the performance that I went and saw him again the very next day.Truly, he has continued the strong musical traditions of his dad and uncle.Other highlights included an emotional performance by Ian McLagen as he sang a couple of numbers by his old mucker Ronnie Lane and a particularly anarchic set by Alabama 3 - I know they have been around for a while but didnt know much about them. I will be ensuring I see them whenever they are touring the UK in future as their songs and performance were a real treat. Tipped to be huge are The Ting Tings from Manchester - they have a debut album out in May which if it matches their live performance will propel them to stardom.
Downside was an attempt on the first day to see Van Morrison - the queue seemed to include half the population of Texas - we were not confident of getting in so left the queue only to find out that everyone managed to get in.Not wishing for it to sound like sour grapes but the man arrived in a limo accompanied by a couple of beefy minders - this wasnt in keeping with the vibe of the festival and if Michael Stipe could walk around without the need of personal protection I am sure Van could be less ostentatious.
Minor quibble - organisers could exercise a little more quality control - 1700 bands did include a lot of 4 piece guitar indie bands indistinguisable from each other.
Felt sorry for Ed Harcourt - great set marred by bad sound quality.
Tip for anyone thinking of going - get a personal trainer before you go - 70 plus venues, 12 hour plus sessions and walking between gigs in 90 degree heat require quite a level of stamina.
Final comment on Waterloo Records - possibly one of the best record stores I have ever visited. If it could be transplanted into a town near me I would be very happy indeed - 3 visits, countless purchases.2 guys ahead of me in a queue on the last day spent usd 175 and usd 249 each and the store had dozens of customers both local and overseas visitors - it does tell me if things are done properly record stores can still be a success.
A fantastic experience I would highly recommend to any seriuous music fan.