Here’s one to the momory of the American songwriter and producer Lamont Dozier (1941-2022), who would have turned 85 today. Together with brothers Brian (1941- ) and Eddie Holland (1939- ) he was part of the songwriter/producer team Holland-Dozier-Holland. These three had huge sucess with at the record company Tamla Motown in the 1960’s.
Back then Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote and/or produced dozens of hits for among others The Supremes, The Four Tops, The Isley Brothers and Martha & The Vandellas. Lets’s celebrate the memory of Lamont Dozier with one of the best known songs he wrote together with the Holland brothers.
I had a great time yesterday, went to yet another Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Concert. He’s my favorite musician alive. Arrived hours before the concert to be at the very front, so you can see me in this video, too. Not the best song of the night but the best video of yesterday’s concert I can find right now.
One of the highlights was “Henry Lee” from the Murder Ballads album, featuring one of the background singers. She has a great voice. Here’s a video from the concert in Dublin.
But the biggest surprise on the setlist, for me, was “Train Long Suffering”. That’s an old one, as you can see in this hilarious historical document.
And here’s what that song sounds like today. From another concert of this tour. It totally rocks and worked very well as one of the opening numbers yesterday, to get the audience going. I hope it will be performed again when I’m going to see another show in Dresden in early august. Sorry for spamming with so many Nick Cave videos, I’m still processing last night.
A few days ago we celebrated the memory of the great Irish guitarist and singer Rory Gallagher, when Lukas posted a song by him on the anniversary of his passing. Let’s pick up on that, and celebrate the memory of a musician who played in Rory’s band, mamely the Welsh drummer Rod de’Ath, who was born 77 years ago today.
Rod de’Ath was Rory’s drummer from 1973 until 1978. Many consider this to be Rory’s best years. After he left the band, he toured with Chuck Berry and played with a couple of lesser known bands, before moving to the US in the beginning om the 1980’s. He returned to England in the the mid 80’s, and unfortunately his life was soon about to be drastically changed.
When running down some steps to catch a train, Rod de’Ath slipped and fell. He suffered a serious head injury. The accident left him with a brain damage and blindness on one of his eyes. It also meant that he could never drum again. The doctors said he at best had four years left to live, and he chose to not tell “anybody” about it.
For years after this it was rumoured that Rod de’Ath was dead, and when he did not turn up in Rory Gallagher’s funeral in 1996, many took this as a confirmation that this was the case. However, he did turn up at a memorial for Rory a few months later. Rory’s long-time bass player Gerry McAvoy remembers that Rod looked frail then and was walking with the help of a cane.
Not much is known about Rod de’Ath after 1996. He did a short interview in May 2012, where he confirmed that he had mostly recoverd from the accident, and and had chosen to live a quiet life. The last time he was seen in public was a few months later, at the funeral of former bandmate Lou Martin.
Rod de’Ath passed away in 2014, at the age of 64. Here he is behind his drum kit, together with Gerry McAvoy (bass), Lou Martin (keyboards) and of course Rory on the guitar. To the memory of Rod de’Ath
Here’s one to the memory of the great Scottish singer and songwriter Jackie Leven, who would have turned 77 today. He had some success as the frontman in Doll By Doll in the late 1970’s and early 80’s. Unfortunately, he was ass-aulted (the dash due to censorship!) in London in 1984, which involved some strangulation. This made him unable to speak for two years.
Jackie Leven got out alive, but during his recovery from the assault, he got addicted to heroin. Luckcily he was able to both get his vocal chords back in shape again and to overcome his addiction. So around 1993 he started his solo career, which was very productive, to say the least.
Jackie Leven gigged constantly, and released over 20 albums, all the way until he passed away in 2011. He had a concert scheduled four days after his passing, so he kept going to the very end. Here’s to the memory of Jacke Leven
Doll By Doll - Hell Games (1979)
Jackie Leven - Here Come the Urban Ravens (Homage To Kevin Coyne) (2006)
Allow me to end this post with my personal Jackie Leven story. I did see him live in late 1993. During the break I was chatting with someone, and I noticed a light tap on my shoulder. I turned around and there stood Jackie Leven. I almost got scared for a moment. I’m 182 cm tall, but he was a lot taller. “Excuse me sir,” he said. I noticed I was blocking his way. So I said sorry and made room for him, and got a polite “Thank you” in return. And that concludes my story talking to Jackie Leven, a true Scottish gentleman
Just one more thing before I stop my ramblings here for today, do any of you remember Kevin Coyne (hence the second song in this post)? He’s got to be one of the best “forgotten” artists ever. Perhaps I should do a post about him sometime?
Yes, fucking Lingen. Never had that on my radar as a concert location either, but it was a conveniently short drive for me, so I chose that gig over Bonn.
Where the Wild Roses Grow… I was half expecting that song when he asked that background singer to come forward.
And Nick would never color his hair, how dare you utter such blasphemous thoughts?
Yes, he was brilliant at his best!
Perhaps I’ll get inspired one day or another. Meanwhile…
Kevin Coyne - Dynamite Daze (1978)
By the way, did you get to see him live? I saw him once some time in the mid 1980’s, at a small club with around 50 people. One of the best concerts I’ve ever been to!
Seriously though, the thing with me is, in the late 90’s, at around age 20, I discovered, and connected to three musical artists who have dominated my interest in popular music ever since. David Bowie, Nick Cave and Björk. That seems to be enough for me. There’s been a few others I’ve been mildly interested in for an album or two, but none of them ever became remotely as meaningful to me as my holy trinity. I’m settled in my ways.
Bowie is no longer with us, but I was fortunate to see some great concerts and his body of work remains.
I still think Björk is a musical genius, but my love for her has cooled down a little these last few years. Didn’t really love her last few albums and concert attitude lately.
I can count myself lucky that with Nick Cave I have one idol who has stayed very productive since I discovered him, putting out good albums and and reliably performing great on tour.
no pressure at all I can watch Youtube and i already re-discoverd some beauties from him
no.. shame, i never got the chance te join a live gig of him
they were very good, but since Ian Gillan has troubles with the high notes and they cover that with the guitar, it is not really my cup of tea anymore and John Lord is not alive anymore and he was one of the typical soundparts of the band
well then..
Iron Maiden, been searching the topic , but could not find this one
I did have a thing for Sinead once, when I was still looking for my own taste in music. Haven’t listened to those albums in ages. But I didn’t know that she was quite cute with hair, too.
In another post I just quoted a Meat Loaf song. Or so I thought. Like every good Meat Loaf song Good Girls Go To Heaven was written by Jim Steinman. But it turns out in English it was first performed by Pandoras Box, three years before Meat Loaf recorded it for Bat out of Hell 2.
Edit: Going down that rabbit hole there’s an even earlier, Japanese version. Apparently there’s several Steinman J-Pop songs.
I’d like to pay tribute to the English keyboard player Dave Greenslade, whose passing was announced about a week ago. He was 83, and the only constant member of the blues/prog/jazz band Colosseum from the formation in 1968 until the first breakup in 1971, and then in the first reunion from 1994 until 2015.
After Colosseum’s first split, Dave Greenslade formed the prog band Greenslade in 1973. This was a good prog band, who fell a little short of the big success. After all, the competition was steep back then, with among others Genesis, Yes and ELP in their prime. After Greenslade broke up in early 1976, Dave Greenslade did some solo albums, before in the mid 1980’s he vanished almost completely for a decade.
It is a pioneer in British prog who left us recently. To Dave Greenslade’s memory, I’ll go out on a limb here and post a long track, namely the title track from Colosseum’s second album. It is almost 17 minutes long, it is an instrumental and it is an astonishing piece of music! Thank you for the music Dave, may you be remembered
Colosseum - The Valentyne Suite (1969)
Once again, a little trivia at the end. Some of you slightly elderly gentlemen who frequent this topic may remember Vertigo Records, with its iconic spiral label. Valentyne Suite was the first album released on Vertigo.
