Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2021 i UNCUT

THE last time that Edinburgh-born singer Dot Allison made an album in Scotland was in 1992. Back then, she was a 22-year-old biochemistry student at Glasgow University who would spend the day in the laboratory before heading to the studio at night to record with her band One Dove. These sessions would be sent to London where Andrew Weatherall, who’d helped the band get a deal with Boy’s Own, would go about knocking them into shape in the style of Screamadelica. “I feel like my music is getting more honest as time goes on” With its blissful mix of shoegaze, dub and trip-hop, the trio’s one and only album, Morning Dove White – released in late 1993 after protracted interference by Boy’s Own’s backers London Records – became a comedown…

“When histories of musical or pop-culture movements get told, the women just vanish” TRACEY Thorn is well aware of the absurdity of the situation that she and her Everything But The Girl partner Ben Watt found themselves in after “Missing” scaled charts around the world in the mid-’90s. “I remember thinking, ‘This is brilliant, I’ve loved it, but I couldn’t live like this forever.’ We’d already been along a road with some real ups and downs, so it was almost like someone waving a magic wand and saying, ‘After all that, you’re gonna have the fun of an absolutely massive fuck-off hit!’ Then we did the follow-up record, which was successful again, then I retired. Global superstardom? It’s exhausting!” Her retirement has been unusually productive: as well as three solo…

Run And Tell NO LABEL, 2013 Written when she was just 14 and recorded when she was 16, Webster’s debut is a straightforward roots album recalling Kathleen Edwards or Allison Moorer. Even as a teenager, she’s a sharp student of country songwriting, and this debut shows how she had to learn the rules in order to break them. Best is her completely transformed cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing In The Dark”. 6/10 Faye Webster AWFUL, 2017 Signing with Atlanta hip-hop label Awful Records did little to curb the twang in Webster’s vocals, but she takes an important step towards redefining herself on her self-titled sophomore album. Fleeing the honky-tonk of her debut, she embraces new sounds and settings, slowing her songs down to showcase her voice. She even soars up…

1 Boy From Michigan 2 County Fair 3 The Rusty Bull 4 The Cruise Room 5 Mike And Julie 6 Best In Me 7 Rhetorical Figure 8 Just So You Know 9 Dandy Star 10 Your Portfolio 11 The Only Baby 12 Billy Produced by: Cate Le Bon Recorded at: Moon Zero Two, Hljóðriti and Green House Studios, Reykjavík, Iceland Personnel: John Grant (vocals, piano, synthesisers, programming), Cate Le Bon (guitar, bass, percussion, synthesisers), Stella Mozgawa (drums, percussion), Stephen Black (clarinet, saxophone, bass), Euan Hinshelwood (saxophone)…

What does Home Video mean in the context of this album? Documentation has always been a big part of my life whether in video, photo or song. I was born right around the time my parents got their first camcorder and my dad was constantly taking videos right from when I was a baby. Has not being able to perform live helped you commit such personal memories to tape? I think that’s probably true. I’m now realising I’m going to have to say these things in front of people! Previously, I wanted to write my way out of sadness. With these songs, I didn’t have that filter. Why keep the studio chatter at the end of “Going Going Gone”? Documentation again. The song sounds a bit like a campfire singalong…

It’s only your third solo album – does it feel different recording under your own name, as opposed to with ZZ Top? The only difference is different faces in the room. It’s still about getting in and letting loose with the creative moments that go into making loud noises. How much did the recording location inform the album? Sessions that unfold within the surrounds of the desert get to enjoy the powerful energies and the mysteries between sand, rock and cactus. Throw in a few rattlesnakes for good measure and there you have what it takes to get busy. “Desert High” contains allusions to Gram Parsons, Jim Morrison, Keith Richards – are these people you got to know personally? The connection of an enjoyable friendship with both Keith Richards and…

What is Kamau Brathwaite’s significance for you? He was a giant of Caribbean literature, someone who helped to define what it meant to be a Caribbean writer, and consequently a Caribbean person. His work was completely original, politically infused, muscular. He drew on Africa for spiritual connection, but also championed the Caribbean Creole languages – the Nation languages. How does the poetry/ music relationship work? There is no separation for me between music and poetry. Poetry is a form of music. The music isn’t completely improvised. They are compositions which we then shape and mould around the lyrics. A musician, if they are so inclined, can approach their instrument as a poet approaches words, finding the most potent sound, the most incisive tone for the moment. It’s an element of…

SPIRITS REJOICE Spirits Rejoice! JO’BURG, 1978 The band’s follow-up album features guitarist Paul Petersen, who slightly lacks the edge that Russell Herman gave to the debut. But this is still a slick piece of jazz-rock, with twists and turns. Newcomer Robbie Jansen’s alto sax creates a four-man horn section sometimes reminiscent of more orchestral fusion bands such as Centipede and Brotherhood Of Breath. 8/10 JOY Paradise Road RPM, 1980 Backed by most of Spirits Rejoice, Joy were a vocal trio featuring Felicia Marion, Anneline Malebo and Thoko Ndlozi. This debut is a mix of gospel songs and originals written by their producers Fransua Roos and Patric van Blerk. The title track was a No 1 for nine weeks in South Africa and became something of an anthem for the fledgling…

BLACK SABBATH Sabotage: Super Deluxe Edition BMG 8/10 Metal progenitors’ sixth, expanded across four discs Sabbath’s earliest records were powered by all manner of dark and infernal themes – the Devil, witchcraft, the horrors of war – but the evil that creeps through Sabotage refers to a topic rather more earthbound: lawyers. It was recorded while the band were locked in legal acrimony with their former manager, and the frustration sometimes rises to the surface. “You bought and sold me with your lying words,” cries Ozzy on “The Writ”. This is second-tier Sabbath, arriving at the waning of their imperial phase. But that’s still a formidable prospect, particularly on the choir-assisted “Supertzar” and “Symptom Of The Universe”, a fusion of caveman chug and acoustic guitar filigree. Also included is a…

THE EVERLY BROTHERS THE EVERLY BROTHERS SING GREAT COUNTRY HITS WARNERS , 1963 I love when Don and Phil sing. For somebody my age, the Everly Brothers might be the first duets you hear. They were on the radio when I was a child, and I think my mother might have played them too. There’s something soothing about their voices that makes me feel safe and calm. “Oh Lonesome Me”, “Please Help Me I’m Falling”, “Release Me”… In Glasgow, these were the songs you used to hear coming out of people’s windows. “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”, “I Walk The Line”, “Born To Lose” – they made these songs their own even though they were made famous by other people. GRAM PARSONS GRIEVOUS ANGEL REPRISE,1974 This album, with Gram…

FROM his earliest releases in the late 1970s until his untimely death in 2016, Prince was obsessed with recording. On tour he recorded every show; at home he was in Paisley Park Studio A as much as possible. He might be trying to assemble his next album or he might be taking notes, writing songs, goofing off, or practising his own purple brand of mad science. That work ethic means he left behind a legendarily massive vault crammed full of alternate takes, false starts, cul-de-sac jams and more than a few “lost” records. Because he thought one and sometimes two albums ahead, he might abandon a project on a whim – no matter how far along he was in the process. His motives for scrapping an album were often never…

HOW did Paisley Park Records begin? It started just as an imprint – then around 1985, he struck the deal with Warners, which was technically a joint venture. The intention on their part was that he produce hit records for other artists. He had proven himself with the first two Time albums, the first Sheila E album and the Vanity 6 project . Warners were upset that The Bangles’ “Manic Monday” was on Columbia – it was a huge hit. They wanted everything under their umbrella. How involved was Prince in Paisley Park? He was very interested in it – but he was so busy with his own career, he just didn’t have the time. Most of those projects – Good Question, The 3 O’Clock, Mazarati – came from his…

1 The Journey To The Hanamachi 2 Closer 2 My Heart 3 All Night Long 4 Milk & Honey 5 I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You) 6 Love Changes 7 When A Man Loves A Woman 9 To The Teeth 10 The Cross 10 Redhead Stepchild 11 Rock Steady 12 3121 13 Lolita 14 Satisfied 15 Black Sweat 16 Kiss 17 Joy In Repetition 18 Fury 19 Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough 20 What Have You Done For Me Lately 21 Partyman 22 Play That Funky Music 23 Love Rollercoaster 24 It’s Alright 25 I Want To Take You Higher 26 Purple Rain 27 Let’s Go Crazy…

DUKE ELLINGTON ELLINGTON AT NEWPORT COLUMBIA, 1956 PRINCE was the son of a jazz pianist father and vocalist mother, but his own interest in classic jazz was a slow evolution. He credited his longtime saxophonist, Eric Leeds, for turning him on to Duke Ellington’s comeback concert recording, whose 15-minute “Diminuendo And Concerto In Blue” featured a show-stopping Paul Gonsalves solo. Prince especially dug that “the solo went as long as it did [ because ] this lady jumped up on a table and started dancing to the rhythm, so naturally nobody wanted to quit”, he said in 1997. JAMES BROWN VARIOUS SINGLES KING, LATE 1960S-EARLY 1970S James Brown is central to Prince’s legend — the young tyro famously rode his bike to north Minneapolis record shops to pick up each…

JOHN Lennon once told Billboard that Ann Peebles’ 1973 R&B hit “I Can’t Stand The Rain” was “the best song ever”. His appreciation didn’t stop there. Peebles was aware she had a diehard fan on her hands when Lennon turned up at her show at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in February 1974. In the throes of his ‘Lost Weekend’, it transpired that Lennon voiced his approval a little too enthusiastically. “I got up there, looked down and saw John Lennon,” Peebles recalls, laughing. “He’d had a little too much to drink, and he started hollering my name out. He had a sanitary napkin tied over his head and he was screaming, ‘Ann, I love you!’ He was flying! He was just expressing himself, I think. He was really something.…

LATE FOR THE SKY ASYLUM, 1974 The high-water mark of Browne’s remarkable ’70s output, ostensibly a break-up album that doubles as an allusive meditation on love, loss and the search for meaning. Includes apocalyptic mini-epic “Before The Deluge”. 9/10 RUNNING ON EMPTY ASYLUM, 1977 Following up The Pretender , Browne cuts a stellar batch of mostly new songs on stage, in motel rooms and on the bus, with the title track a rolling metaphor for rock-star burnout. 9/10 LIVES IN THE BALANCE ASYLUM, 1986 A politically engaged Browne calls out the Reagan administration on his eighth album, at its most venomous on “For America” and the title track, written in the midst of the Iran-Contra scandal. 8/10 LOOKING EAST ELEKTRA, 1996 Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt and David Crosby are among…

FIRST COW Directed by Kelly Reichardt Starring John Magaro, Orion Lee Opens May 28 Cert To be confirmed 9/10 IN THE EARTH Directed by Ben Wheatley Starring Joel Fry, Ellora Torchia Opens June 18 Cert To be confirmed 7/10 GUNDA Directed by Victor Kossakovsky Opens June 4 Cert To be confirmed 9/10 THE KILLING OF TWO LOVERS Directed by Robert Machoian Starring Clayne Crawford Opens June 4 Cert To be confirmed 7/10 AFTER LOVE Directed by Aleem Khan Starring Joanna Scanlan, Nathalie Richard Opens June 4 Cert 12A 7/10…

T.REX ELECTRIC WARRIOR FLY/REPRISE,1971 This is a great record, and it was also the first record I ever bought, when I was about 12 years old. There’s one track which really stands out for me: “Girl”. It’s just an acoustic masterpiece. There’s also “Get It On”, and all kinds of other things on this album that are really worth exploring. I think the first four or five girls that I went out with were Marc Bolan fanatics! Beyond a shadow of a doubt this is one of the best albums in the Top 100 albums ever made. It was tragic how his career was cut short. KING CRIMSON IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING ISLAND/EG, 1969 This was the second album I ever bought, after my older brother introduced…

JOHN DWYER ET AL Moon-Drenched CASTLE FACE You might not think you need yet another album of diversionaryTagoMagusjams from the OSees don and heavy friends. But you doo, right. NATHAN SALSBURG Psalms NO QUARTER Kentucky folklorist cleverly upcycles a selection of Hebrew psalms, with help from James Elkington, Joan Shelley and Will Oldham. VARIOUS ARTISTS Strain, Crack & Break, Volume 2 (Germany) FINDERSKEEPERS The fabled Nurse With Wound list strikes again, unearthing a trove of deranged Krautrock that makes Amon Düül II sound like Coldplay. BLANK GLOSS Melt KOMPAKT Stars of the latest Pop Ambient comp disperse their EBowed magic across a full album. In the same domain as our Ambient  Americana CD, but with a bit more Bark Psychosis bite. BRAIN DAMAGE MEETS BIG YOUTH Beyond The Blue JARRING…

David John Morris “I need to find a place to express that stuff” What was the idea behind recording most of the album in a day? My bank balance was the main factor! The limitations weren’t chosen really, they were the product of circumstance. When I got back [ to the UK ], I tried recording lots of overdubs, but in the end I cut it back and just left the ones that really added something. Musical instruments aren’t generally allowed at Gampo Abbey, are they? Someone who’s made a life commitment in the Buddhist tradition wouldn’t be allowed to play music, that’s part of the deal. What I did was a temporary vow, but because you’re living in this community with people who have taken lifetime vows you wouldn’t…

LP 1– Yardbirds [MonoVersion] Side One : 1. LostWomen 2. OverUnder SidewaysDown 3. The Nazz Are Blue 4. I Can’t Make YourWay 5. Rack My Mind 6. Farewell Side Two : 1. HotHouseOf Omagararshid 2. Jeff’sBoogie 3. He’s Always There 4. TurnIntoEarth 5. What Do You Want 6. Ever Since The WorldBegan LP 2– Yardbirds [StereoVersion] Seven-inchsingle HappeningsTen Years Time Ago CD 1 – Yardbirds [Mono Version] CD 2 –Yardbirds [StereoVersion] CD3 – 1966 Studio Recordings 1. Mr Zero – KeithRelf 2. Knowing – KeithRelf 3. HotHouseOf Omagararshid/ (Alternate Mono Mix) 4. He’s Always There(Alternate Stereo Mix) 5. TurnIntoEarth (EarlyMix) 6. TurnIntoEarth (VocalTrack) 7. TurnIntoEarth (Alternate Stereo Mix) 8. Ever Since The WorldBegan (VocalTrack) 9. I Can’t Make Your Way (Alternate Stereo Mix) 10. GreatShakes Commercial (Version1) 11. GreatShakes Commercial…

LIZ PHAIR has spent the pandemic at her home in Manhattan Beach – an upmarket seaside community in Southern California. “I don’t think I have self-care,” Phair reflects on this protracted period of isolation. “I have determination and grit!” Speaking to Uncut from a lime-green room adorned with hot-pink curtains, pink artwork and pink balloons, Phair explains that she has spent lockdown in the company of her adult son, Nick – who has reactive airway disease – which means she has remained on a “very protective spectrum” compared with many people she knows. “My friends have been gallivanting everywhere,” she explains with evident frustration. “I can’t even talk about it.” Most days, she explains, she and Nick have disinfected their groceries and refused to permit guests inside the house. “More…

“THE FIRST time I met Prince he was wrestling on the floor with his cousin, Charles. He was so small, I thought he was eight. I didn’t realise he was 12. Charles – Chazz, we call him – and I used to make jokes about Prince: ‘Can you imagine Prince at 50 with a pot belly…?’ “In December 1970, I got out of the army with an honourable discharge and went to see my girl Shantel – who was Prince’s first cousin – in Minneapolis. I had 90 days to get back to my job with the New York Telephone Company, so I stayed there a little short of three months, then went back to Brooklyn. Once, we went over Prince’s mom’s house. I thought he was pretty quiet. He…

IT was April 17, 1985 and times were changing for Prince. The multi-platinum success of the previous year’s Purple Rain had emboldened him – he had already delivered its successor, Around The World In A Day, due for release imminently. Ever restless, Prince settled into Sunset Sound in LA to record yet another LP, beginning with a new song called “Wendy’s Parade”. “HE MOVED A KING›SIZE BED INTO THE STUDIO” COKE JOHNSON Released on April 25 – just five days after these new sessions began – Around The World In A Day was a dramatic left-turn for its creator that, perhaps deliberately, had confounded expectations. While critics scratched their heads at this psychedelic extravaganza, Prince focused firmly on the future – Parade. As studio engineer Coke Johnson now reflects, “This…

KIRAN SHARMA (MANAGER): Prince was wondering how to trump those 21 nights at the O2 when he’d last toured London [2007]. We were hanging out in the Grosvenor Apartments on Park Lane one night, drinking brandy and eating chocolate, and I suggested a tour of famous landmarks and historical places. He loved the idea, but when I looked into it there were so many issues about decibel levels, insurance and so on. So Prince said, “What about iconic venues? We could do a hit and run.” The venues could be smaller and there’d be more of a party/house feel. IDA NIELSEN (BASSIST, 3RDEYEGIRL): The idea was to create a buzz – just pop up and play without advertising too much in advance. He wanted to do something different. HANNAH WELTON…

“I TRY NOT TO THINK A LOT ABOUT PAST WORK”KURT WAGNER IT’S been a while since Kurt Wagner picked up a guitar and, after such a lengthy period of inactivity, he’s having trouble getting used to it again. To prove his point, he brings his antique Gibson acoustic – “an LG-something” – up from the basement and rests it on his lap. “It’s funny,” he says. “Part of my life was practising and preparing for performance. But when that went away, so did my interaction with this thing.” A guitar might seem like a step backwards for Wagner, who these days works primarily on his laptop, carving blocks of digital information like a sculptor might do with marble. “There was a time when I was a typewriter guy,” he explains.…

1968: Willie Mitchell signs 21-year-old singer Ann Peebles to Hi Records after she is recommended by bandleader Gene “Bowlegs” Miller 1969: Peebles’ first record, “Walk Away”, is a hit on the R&B charts 1971: She begins working with Don Bryant, who released a solo album on Hi in 1969. They later start dating and marry in 1974 1973: The couple write “I Can’t Stand The Rain” with input from local DJ Bernard Miller July 1973: “I Can’t Stand The Rain” is released as a single on Hi, giving Peebles her only Top 40 US pop hit July 1974: The album of the same name is released, including Peebles classics such as “I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down” 1984: Tina Turner has a global hit with the song 2006: A live…

“I FIRST met Jackson when he was playing with Ned Doheny around 1971. I immediately knew that I’d found a kindred spirit for life, no matter what it entailed, whether it was music or just friendship or helping each other through life’s trials and tribulations. We both had surfing interests and never lived far from one another. When we lived up in the Canyons I could throw a stone from my house to his. Then he asked me and some of my other mates to play on his first record [ 1972’s Jackson Browne ]. 1970-’72 was a power-packed period for me – I played on James Taylor’s albums, the first Jackson album, Joni Mitchell’s Blue , Carole King’s Tapestry . It was a mind-blowing time to be right in…

ANITA LANE Bad Seeds lyricist and muse (1960-2021) FINE Art student Anita Lane was first introduced to Nick Cave by guitarist Roland S Howard in 1977. A creative catalyst for a transfixed Cave, then in The Boys Next Door, they quickly became an item, their relationship extending to lyrical collaborations. When the band morphed into The Birthday Party and moved from Melbourne to London three years later, Lane was a fixture too, co-writing “A Dead Song” for their debut, Prayers On Fire. Lane’s dark, allusive lyrics chimed with The Birthday Party’s sensibilities. “Dead Joe” and “Kiss Me Black” appeared on 1982’s Junkyard, while her union with Cave continued into The Bad Seeds, of which Lane was briefly a member. She co-wrote 1984’s “From Her To Eternity”, a magnificent…

Down the road he goes! In shops now is our UltimateMusic Guide to Creedence ClearwaterRevival and their songwriting powerhouse, John Fogerty. From their early steps as misfits on the San Francisco scene all the way to Fogerty’s rebirth as solo artist, social conscience and benign Lord of Lockdown… We celebrate Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday on May 24 with the release of a special edition: TheComplete Bob Dylan, presenting the man’s entire body of work – ranked! Both the Dylan and Creedence mags are also available to order from Uncut. co.uk/single… EdgarWright’s new film, The Sparks Brothers – billed as “a musical odyssey through five weird and wonderful decades with Ron and Russell Mael” – will open this year’s Sundance Film Festival: London on July 29. Wright will take part in…

1 Better Distractions 2 Sometimes 3 I Know I’m Funny haha 4 In A Good Way 5 Kind Of 6 Cheers 7 Both All The Time 8 A Stranger 9 A Dream With A Baseball Player 10 Overslept (feat. mei ehara) 11 Half Of Me Produced by: Drew Vandenberg, Faye Webster Recorded at: Chase Park Transduction, Athens, GA Personnel: Faye Webster (vocals, guitar), Matt “Pistol” Stoessel (pedal steel, guitar), Bryan Howard (bass), Nick Rosen (keys, synths), Harold Brown (drums, percussion), Annie Leeth (violin, string arrangement), Henry White (horns), mei ehara (vocals), Jeremy Wheatley (drums), Noah Johnson (cello), Jordi Lara (cello)…

1 Yela Oh ! 2 Running — Asibaleki / Sheroes Theme 3 iQ(w)ira — Machine Learning Vol 1. 4 Mme Kelapile 5 Harare 6 Human Hearts 7 Yoyo! — The Mandela Effect /Black Aurora Cusp Druids Ascending 8 Maiga Mali Mansa Musa 9 Mmao Wa Tseba — Nare /Indaba My Children Produced by: BLK JKS Recorded at: Post Post Studios; Invisible Cities Pirate Radio Studios; Stoep Studios; Downtown Studios; Soweto Theatre. All Johannesburg Personnel: Mpumelelo Mcata (guitar, vocals), Tshepang “RMBO” Ramoba (guitar, drums, vocals), Molefi Makananise (bass, vocals), Tebogo Seitei (trumpet, vocals), Morena Leraba (vocals on “Harare”), Vieux Farka Touré (guitars on “Maiga Mali Mansa Musa”)…

1 Hot & Heavy 2 Christine 3 First Time 4 VBS 5 Cartwheel 6 Thumbs 7 Going Going Gone 8 Partner In Crime 9 Brando 10 Please Stay 11 Triple Dog Dare Produced by: Collin Pastore Recorded at: Trace Horse, Nashville, TN Personnel includes: Lucy Dacus (vocals, electric guitar, piano), Jacob Blizard (bass guitar, electric guitars, piano, autoharp, synthesisers), Camille Faulkner (violin), Jake Finch (drums, synthesisers, organ), Collin Pastore (pedal steel), Keilan Creech (acoustic guitar), Julien Baker (additional vocals), Phoebe Bridgers (additional vocals)…

1 Kamau 2 Calling England Home 3 Maka Dimweh 4 Language (Poem For Anthony McNeill) 5 Swing Praxis 6 The Gift Produced by: Jason Yarde Recorded at: Livingston Studios and Total Refreshment Centre, London; Question de Son, Paris Personnel: Anthony Joseph (vocals), Thibaut Remy (guitar), Andrew John (bass), Rod Youngs (drums), Florian Pellissier (piano, Moog, organ), Jason Yarde (alto and baritone saxophones), Denys Baptiste and Shabaka Hutchings (tenor sax, bass clarinet), Colin Webster (tenor and baritone saxes), Roger Raspail (percussion), Crispin Robinson (bata drums, percussion)…

1 Joy 2 Standing Here Alone 3 Savage Dance And African Spaces 4 Mulberry Funk 5 Minute Song 6 Sugar Pie 7 Makes Me Wonder Why 8 Electric Chicken Produced By: David Marks and Spirits Rejoice Recorded At: Satbel Studios, Johannesburg Personnel: Mervyn Africa (electric piano, acoustic piano, organ, vibes), Russell Herman (electric guitar, lead vocals), Sipho Gumede (electric bass, percussion), Gilbert Matthews (drums, perc), Duke Makasi (tenor and soprano saxophones), George Tyefumani (trumpet), Temba Mehlomakulu (trombone, trumpet), Felicia Marion (vocals)…

SONG TO A SEAGULL Produced by: David Crosby Recorded at: Sunset Sound Personnel: Joni Mitchell (vocals, guitar, piano), Stephen Stills (bass), Lee Keefer (banshee) CLOUDS Produced by: Joni Mitchell, Paul A Rothchild Recorded at: A&M Personnel: Joni Mitchell (vocals, guitar, keyboard), Stephen Stills (guitar, bass) LADIES OF THE CANYON Produced by: Joni Mitchell Recorded at: A&M Personnel: Joni Mitchell (vocals, guitar, piano, Appalachian dulcimer), Teresa Adams (cello), Paul Horn (clarinet, flute), Jim Horn (baritone saxophone), Milt Holland (percussion), The Lookout Mountain Downstairs Choir (voice) BLUE Produced by: Joni Mitchell Recorded at: A&M Personnel: Joni Mitchell (vocals, guitar, piano, Appalachian dulcimer), James Taylor (guitar), Russ Kunkel (drums), Stephen Stills (guitar, bass), Sneaky Pete Kleinow (pedal steel guitar)…

You made the transition from bass player to producer here. SAMWELL-SMITH: I wasn’t so interested in being on stage. When the chance came to produce an album, I leapt at it. By then, Simon Napier-Bell was managing us, and the first thing he did was book us into a studio to start making an album. I was playing “Over Under Sideways Down” recently and my wife said, “That’s nice bass playing – is that you?” And I said, “Yes, of course it is.” I later found that I’d asked Jeff Beck to play bass while I stayed in the control room. Fucking hell, of course it’s good – it’s Jeff Beck! Other bands spent a long time in the studio while you were playing gigs. Were you being left behind?…

EXILE IN GUYVILLE MATADOR, 1993 Her audacious debut – double album, no less – introduced Phair’s unrestrained confessionalism to the wider world. But she was no overnight success. Phair had been defining and refining her music for years through her lo-fi Girly-Sound cassettes – released for the first time with the 2018 Guyville reissue. WHIP-SMART MATADOR, 1994 Guyville’s well-received 1994 follow-up, Whip-Smart is a little slicker and a little more complex, reflective of the deluge of experience that comes with navigating a hit record. It includes the hit “Supernova” as well as the charming and infectious title track. WHITECHOCOLATESPACEEGG MATADOR, 1998 Her third is strong but began to divide fans for its multi-pronged approach – by turns stripped down and intimate, blown out and full throated or thoroughly poppy. Highlights…

“THE first time me and Bobby stood in the same room was at an aftershow party for a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds gig in London. Bobby was chatting with Nick and Warren, making them laugh about something. We didn’t meet that evening, but my first impression of him was that he seemed quite jolly and very well dressed! The first time we properly met was at a Hedi Slimane YSL show in Paris where I came all dressed in leather. Bobby knew who I was by then and had heard my music, but in retrospect I think our exchange of numbers that day was mainly based on my outfit! “The collaboration on Utopian Ashes was very easy and intuitive. Bobby and Andrew Innes came to Paris twice to…

“PRINCE had two objectives with The Rebels. One, he wanted to do something so that the band could feel more like a band – because we were just the touring band playing the records live. Two, Prince was the brand, but he wanted to do these other things because of his unquenchable drive to make music. This was his first gene splice before The Time and Vanity 6. In July 1979, we went out to Boulder, Colorado, and stayed at this great hotel where you could have all the shrimp you wanted 24 hours a day. We were still kids, so hanging out in the mountains and eating shrimp all day didn’t suck. “Prince was a producer and conspirator, but he let us do our own thing. We had a…

SHELBY Johnson – better known to Prince fans as Shelby J – remembers being puzzled when she got the lyric sheet for “Son Of A Slave Master”, a blazingly outraged tune from Prince’s unreleased 2010 album ‘Welcome 2 America’. “All the verses had my name on them,” she says. “Can this be right? He wanted me to sing all the verses then he would come in on the chorus. He just liked the way my voice sounded there. As a supporting vocalist, you always think you’re just going to be supporting, but Prince was very generous with his light.” She compares ‘Welcome 2 America’ – which is finally getting released, 11 years late – to a Broadway production, full of complex arrangements and theatrical vocal parts. Because Prince wanted to…

PRINCE was the most contradictory rock star who ever lived. Take anything you ever heard about him and it usually turns out the opposite was also true. An intensely private man, he allowed fans greater access than any other musician. He feigned complete indifference to critics’ opinions, yet his managers told me he’d study every last word of his reviews. When I decided to write a book about him, it seemed worth reaching out to gauge Prince’s response. Expecting a cease-and-desist, or at the very least a cold silence, I was surprised when instead I received an invitation to a party to be held on May 5, 2006 at his 10-bedroom, 18,000 square foot West Hollywood mansion on Sierra Alta Way. An email detailed the dress code – lounge suits…

“I was in west London when I got an email from Prince’s UK team, about half past five one afternoon. They told me an interview was on,  in a couple of hours, in Leyton. In the cab, I was told that it was Lianne La Havas’s house. I get to this ordinary terraced house and there’s a big security guard at the gate on the front wall and another by the front door. The lounge has been cleared out and there’s just a kit and guitars, but no sign of Prince. We wait for an hour or so, then a big, blacked-out car pulls up. The door opens and in walk these three impossibly glamorous women, wafting in like Egyptian goddesses. They stand to one side, we wait for another…

MR M MERGE/CITY SLANG, 2012 Inspired by the death of friend Vic Chesnutt and Sinatra’s string arrangements, this melancholic, soulful record introduced a more experimental, muted Lambchop. 8/10 HECTA THE DIET MERGE/CITY SLANG, 2015 Electronic experiments from this (so far) one-off project pairing Wagner with sometime Lambchop members Ryan Norris and Scott Martin. 7/10 FLOTUS MERGE/CITY SLANG, 2016 Spacious and effortless, Lambchop’s 12th album fully incorporated Auto-Tune and cut-up electronics into their sound, climaxing with the 18-minute “The Hustle”. 9/10 THIS ›IS WHAT I WANTED TO TELL YOU› MERGE/CITY SLANG, 2019 A continuation of FLOTUS’ sound, This … is, if anything, more subdued and tasteful, with Wagner’s usual cohorts hard to spot in the digital landscape. 8/10 TRIP MERGE/CITY SLANG, 2020 A masterful collection of six covers, each chosen…

AUGUST 1 marks the 50th anniversary of the Concert For Bangladesh. Voormann helped Harrison set up the concert, and played bass in the house band. “I witnessed Ravi Shankar telling George about this problem in Bangladesh,” he recalls. “Ravi said he was going to do a concert and George said, ‘Well, I’ll help you!’ “He went to LA to get musicians together, and I followed him and we stayed together. Everyone was so happy. I did an illustration of the rehearsals with Billy Preston, Ringo, George and myself and the brass section. It’s very nice. Olivia saw it and said, ‘Oh, I’d like to have it!’ It was really a ball. We all had so much fun. Nobody got paid, nobody had a record out that they wanted to promote,…

DYLANREVISITED REVISITED Super tribute article in the June issue to mark Dylan’s 80th. Some of the anecdotes by fellow artists and acquaintances were both revelatory and hilarious. Equally compelling was the accompanying CD with covers by some acts hitherto little known to me. I had to seek out and play the twin tribute CDs given out with Uncut’s May 2002 and June 2011 issues. It bears testament to the astonishing quantity and quality of the man’s output that the only track overlap was a version of “The Times They Are A-Changin’” by The Hollies. As someone old and fortunate enough to have followed Dylan’s career path from the outset, I think it fitting to part paraphrase Bill Shankley’s quote about his impeccable Liverpool football team of yesteryear: “There are good…