BOOKER T & THE M.G.’S
“Green Onions”
STAX, 1962
The classic 12-bar structure was something that allowed you an easy entrée into being a performing musician. It was a starting point for learning some basic chords and very simple improvisation. Like many other folks in the UK, me and my pals at school wanted to have a band. We had heard “Green Onions”, and partly based on hearing that, our then-drummer switched to playing the organ. When Steve Cropper cuts in with the guitar solo, that was the bit that really fired it up, this relationship between the electric guitar and the Hammond organ. These were the tools of the trade, the big guns out there on the battlefield, and they were joined at the hip in terms of generating all that great music from the ’60s and ’70s.
THE ANIMALS
“The House Of The Rising Sun”
COLUMBIA, 1964
I loved “The House Of The Rising Sun”, sat there in coffee bars in Blackpool, putting another sixpence in the machine to play it again. I knew I could never sing like Eric Burdon, because he was a slightly raggy blues singer, filled with emotion and conviction rather than accuracy in terms of his intonation and general diction. But he was a great singer – and there was, I suppose, a little ambition lurking in the back of my mind that one day I would love to play “The House Of The Rising Sun”. Many years later, on a German TV show, my wish came true. The producers asked if I would accompany Eric Burdon, so we did “The House Of The Rising Sun” with flute and a string quartet.
MOSE ALLISON
“Swingin’ Machine
ATLANTIC, 1962
Mose Allison was known for rather quirky songs like “Parchman Farm”, but he was a very capable post-bebop piano player with a unique style, a great rhythmic sense and a laconic way of singing. He was a profound influence on those of us who went the more bluesy route, and even some hard rockers like The Who. //Swingin’ Machine// departed from the piano trio format, adding in trombone and tenor saxophone. It’s a lovely album, and the title track is the epitome of that era of funky basic blues meets really sophisticated jazz. I once stood next to Mose at the gents’ urinals in Ronnie Scott’s, but the one thing you don’t do in that situation is turn to the person and say, “Hi, nice to meet you” with an extended hand…
DICK GAUGHAN
“The Pound A Week Rise
TOPIC, 1978
In my late twenties, I started to listen to people who were taking British folk music and giving it new relevance. I was curious as to what Scotland had produced in terms of music that was forceful and gritty and about the real world that we lived in. Dick Gaughan lived most of his life in Edinburgh, which is where I’m from. He was an ardent socialist of a pretty angry sort – on paper he would have hated me. But I have a feeling that if we sat down over a beer in a dodgy bar down Leith Walk, we’d probably get on quite well. There’s a shared sentiment about Scotland and its place in the world, and the fighting against the machinery of big government, which is what he was lamenting in some of his songs.
ROY HARPER
“Another Day”
HARVEST, 1970
I suppose the English equivalent of the angry young man, not afraid to go into political subjects and sometimes with a great sense of humour, is my old buddy, Roy Harper. We first met up in 1968 – he was on the bill with Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd at the very first Hyde Park concert. We all rather liked Roy because he was a free spirit, a solo act who perhaps reminded us all of the essence of apparent simplicity, although a lot of his songs were very complex and musically quite clever. The opening couple of chords of “Another Day” are really intriguing because they’re quite oblique things that only guitar players figured out. The song also has a very sexy bridge section. It evokes eroticism without degenerating into anything too graphic.
FRANK ZAPPA
“Dirty Love
DISCREET, 1973
I was always a huge Zappa fan, so I have to include “Dirty Love”, because it gets right to the point. The lyrics are positively vulgar, but they’re funny and vulgar. Great man, great song. Jethro Tull were mentioned in dispatches early on as being one of the bands he absolutely hated. But he must have mellowed, because in the weeks before he died, I got a message from his long-standing drummer, Terry Bozzio, who said, “Frank wants you to call him”. Three times I picked up the phone to dial that number, but I just couldn’t find the words. I felt so guilty when he died and the chance had gone. But you never know, he might have said, “I just wanted you to know before I die, I //really// hated you!”
VÄRTTINÄ
“Aitara”
MIPU MUSIC, 1994
There was a movement in the ’80s and ’90s in Finland where they were producing such amazing music. Värttinä is very eclectic stuff – there’s little elements of things that would appear to come from India or Ireland or somewhere else, but with the unmistakable prominence of accordion and three girls singing in Finnish. The fact that we can’t understand what the hell they’re singing about is what makes it even more seductive, because your mind steps in and you live off the sound of the words, the expression, and the way they bring it together. “Aitara”, which is sung a cappella, greatly moves me in terms of what the female voice can do when it’s cast loose from normal restraints. It’s mysterious, ethereal, and really quite spiritual.
SKIPPINISH
“The Island”
SKIPPINISH RECORDS, 2017
“The Island” is a damn fine chorus-based song. These guys are from Western Scotland, and it’s in their blood, this mixture of traditional folk melodies, Gaelic singing in the Gaelic language, and a very intuitive and modern approach to guitar, bass and drums, while making things come alive with bagpipes aplenty, accordions, whistles. Norrie MacIver sings beautifully, he’s got spot-on intonation and a lovely accent, and he has that great ability to rouse people with a sense of Scottishness. Sadly he’s no longer with Skippinish, but I hope to meet him one day to tell him how much I like his singing – he has the passion, but he can still draw the little nuances out of the tune and the lyrics which I think are very important.