Time well spent I think you’ll agree.
Cat photograph by Pacto Visual from Unsplash.
Small Beer
Inconsequential items of no fixed abode
Waiting For A Lullaby, The Boys Are Back In Toy Town, Warm Milk In A Jar And Many More
Thin Lizzy’s first, and only, kid’s album was a commercial failure apart from in the Flanders region of Belgium.
Ida Red Is Back In Town
The twin harmony guitar style developed by the rock band Thin Lizzy in the mid 1970s was based on the similar approach of Bob Wills and his Texas playboys.
And That’s Jazz
Trad jazz trumpeter Ken Colyer was born Anatoly Arkhangelsky but took a stage name on discovering another revivalist with a similar moniker.
His favourite comedian Kenneth Horne inspired his new forename whilst Collyer’s was the school he attended whilst growing up in Broadbridge Heath at Field Place, the house in which the poet Shelley was born.
Out In The Fjords
During the period in the late 1990s when legal problems left him short of money Gary Moore re-recorded his 1984 hit Out In The Fields with altered lyrics for a Scandinavian Coastal Cruise company but decided at the last moment not to let them use it.
Love Sensation
The defining piano part that repeats throughout much of the Black Box track ‘Ride On Time’ was played, uncredited, by Richard Tandy who had been the pianist on ELO’s ‘Evil Woman’ – the track from which it was taken.
Brown Eyed Charming Man
The distinctive melodic guitar parts of the second Smiths single developed from Johnny Marr working out Buddy Holly’s solo in his version of the Chuck Berry song ‘Brown Eyed Handsome Man’. Knowing the source Morrissey wrote his lyrics partly as an in joke to create ‘This Charming Man’.
Law! In The Air Age
Art rock band Be-Bop Deluxe were sued by Jazz Journal Magazine for false advertising in 1974 after one of their journalists attended a concert by the group and discovered they had no Be-Bop element to their music.
The Case was dismissed by the Judge as vexatious and widely believed to be a publicity stunt; a fact later confirmed by drummer Simon Fox when a fan discovered by chance that he was related to the journalist in question.
That Ramones Me
Dusty Springfield fans The Ramones originally named themselves after her mid 60s producer, arranger and sometime song writer Ivor Raymonde but on developing their ‘punk’ style decided something grittier was required so shortened it.
Stories that they had been inspired by Paul McCartney signing into hotels as ‘Paul Ramone’ are apocryphal.
Music Fact Bonus!
Ivor Raymonde was father of former Cocteau Twin and Bella Union record label founder Simon Raymonde.
Double Dutch
Despite forming in Athens R.E.M. aren’t Greek.