Chris Rea - The Road To Hell

Ein DJ trat dabei besonders hervor, indem er jenseits aller Genregrenzen Platten auflegte die einfach die entspannte Feierstimmung auf der Sonneninsel wiedergeben. Bei DJ Alfredo trafen frühe House Importe auf Rock und Pop, "Balearic" nannten das erstaunte Engländer, die bis dato nur sauber nach Musikgenre getrennte Nachtclubs kannten.

Chris Rea - Blue Cafe - Original Video

Chris Rea - It´s All Gone

Chris Rea - Josephine

Chris Rea - All summer long

Chris Rea - Nothing to fear

Chris Rea - Baby Please Don't Go

Chris Rea - Julia

Chris Rea - Diamonds

Chris Rea - Loving You Again

Chris Rea - I Can Hear Your Heartbeat

Chris Rea- The Way you look tonight

Coming up on KLB: what film reviews actually tell us, an interview with Sebastian (or possibly a picture of the severed finger he promised to send me if the interview doesn't arrive before tonight) and some thoughts on Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. Although, don't expect me to be too punctual; staying up until 9:30 in the morning playing Secret of Mana on my Super Nintendo emulator has subjugated all other obligations in my life. I can't decide whether that's Balearic or not.

Art of Noise, 'Moments in Love'

Donna Summer, 'State of Independence'

Chris Rea, 'Josephine'

Carly Simon, 'Why' [Loud. Be careful if you're wearing headphones.]

William Pitt, 'City Lights'

• Chris Rea - Looking For The Summer  [Web]  [Myspace]
• ELO - One Summer Dream    [Web]  [Myspace]
• Ben Kweller - Sundress    [Web]  [Myspace]
• Josh Rouse - Summertime    [Web]  [Myspace]
• Pheonix - Summer Days    [Web]  [Myspace]
• Katrina & The Waves - Walking On Sunshine    [Web]  [Myspace]
• Chris Rea - All Summer Long    [Web]  [Myspace]
• The Style Council - Long Hot Summer    [Web]  [Myspace]

[Yes folks, it's Mrs. Toad. Apparently my ramble about Toploader didn't go down all that well in certain circles. She's not disputing the Toploader hatred of course, that would be divorceable.]

Having been affronted by the accusation that a person in position of a fanny (thats erm.. snatch or mimsy to Americans and front bottom to weirdos) must be in want of a Toploader album, I come to redress the gender balance.

Yes, women lose the musical plot when confronted with flashing lights, a pile of handbags and a gullet full of Lambrini but that is nothing, nothing to what happens to a man, sober and in posession of a car.

I present in evidence a sample from the playlist of Top Gear Anthems. More Than a Feeling by Boston, Turn it On Again by Genesis, Bat Out Of Hell by Meatloaf. Yes, faced with the prospect of an afternoons driving, the average middle aged, middle class bloke celebrates the freedom of the open road by listening to pisspoor stadium rock. Driving holiday through the Alps? Perhaps a little Whitesnake to get those hairpin bends flowing. A long night motoring across country? Kick back with a spot of Steppenwolf.

Now, most blokes would agree that the Top Gear crew are a Great Bunch Of Lads but inclined to take the piss. Perhaps a more reliable source? The "Original Rock Driving Album" fails to support the case for the defence weighing in with luminaries of the piss poor such as Simple Minds, Bryan Ferry and Pat Benatar. Enough indeed to support the fact that a large part of the adult male population is driving around their Vauxhall Vectras tapping out Phill Collins drumbeats on the steering wheel and wishing that they had the balls (and hair) to sport Joey Tempest perms instead of a combover.

Psshaw, you say, that's not me, thats guys my dad's age! Yeah, true. That's because blokes your age are driving lowered suspension Nissan Micras round town all night (with green neon trim, ooo-er!), sitting practically on the back seat so they can pretend they are in a race car. The Burberry cap is akimbo, the Elizabeth Duke bling is shining and the spliffs are go. The 200 decibel refrain of "Dubbishdubbish tink tink Dubbishdubbish tink tink awahuh awahuh" rents the night like a cut price jump jet as these cretins rev their 1.1 litre engines and conduct abortively unimpressive wheelspin starts from traffic lights. Fuck me, Lewis Hamilton must be jealous.

Now thats two extreme examples, simple stereotypes you say. Well fine, lets have the more middle of the road guy, maybe had a good year last year, bought a little Boxster with future dreams of a 911 or perhaps a BMW Z4. He likes to drive around with his lady, top down, nice sweater tied around his neck THAT way, maybe some driving shoes and god forbid.. gloves. Whats this with it cat likely to play? Hmmmm, yep Jamiroquai, Chris Rea and maybe rock out a bit... Stereophonics? You know this guy because he has probably brake tested you when he fucks up, driven up your backside flashing his lights and undertaken your ass on the motorway. He's a cunt.

The ONLY men who listen to good music in cars, have shit cars. This is less observation than a law of nature. The minute a man shows any interest in cars or driving for drivings sake he is doomed to musical cuntery (Mr Toad would like to intercede to say he has a good car therefore this is bollocks. He doesn't, its a 35year old Volvo with no stereo and a leaky fuel tank. I rest my case)

And these car guys are on their own, they have no-one egging them on, they aren't pretending to enjoy themselves as many a woman bobbing along to Toploader is. There is no peer pressure. They wake up and go to sleep twats with bad music taste and theres lots of them out there, driving around. Its enough to make you wish Woolies sold RPGs.

At least when I and other women wake up hungover after having sullied ourselves by being on a dance floor when Toploader came on, we feel guilt and self loathing. These guys just get in the car and crank up the shitty tunes again, be it Billy Idol, Billy Ocean or Carl Cox.

So fuck you boys, I'd rather have Toploader pished than K-Tel sober.

Chris Rea - The Road To Hell[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/TheRoadToHellPart1.mp3]
Retort for the boys: The Wedding Present - Drive[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/TheWeddingPresent-Drive.mp3]

AAAAaaaaagghh:

Chris Rea

1998:

The Blue Cafe (CD)

Art Direction: John Carver @ Harry Monk

Design/Image Manipulation: Insect

Photography: Brain R. Brown & Terry O'Neill (portrait)

1999:

The Road to Hell Part 2 (CD)

Illustration: Tony Lodge

2005:

Blue Guitars (11 CD + DVD Box set)

Paintings: Chris Rea

Art Direction & Design: John Tricklebank @ Peacock London

Photography: Stuart Epps

Bootlegs:

1985: Live Loreley St Goarshausen Germany 17-8-1985 (CD)

1988: Live Neurenburgring Germany 5-6-1988 (CD)

• Mind's Eye by Vinnie Moore 1986
• The Road to Hell by Chris Rea 1989
• What A Crying Shame by The Mavericks 1994
• Teatro by Willie Nelson 1998
• I Am Shelby Lynne by Shelby Lynne 2000

Vinnie Moore, Chris Rea, The Mavericks, Willie Nelson and Shelby Lynne: which one of these artists/groups is not like the other? Out of the five, the one that probably is the most distant from the other four is Moore and is where I will begin my comments.

Mind's Eye by Vinnie Moore: I remember when this album came out, I actually bought it on vinyl. At the time, I was purchasing mostly cassettes, but for some reason, I bought it on vinyl. I recorded it off at a neighbor's, who still had a record player, I think. He actually had reel-to-reel tapes too, and then I wore out the tape (Memorex, I think) by playing it in the car that summer and the next couple of summers. Moore is labeled "a shredder," which seems to have come to mean a guitarist that is all flash and no substance like Yngwie Malmsteen or Joe Satriani or Steve Vai. However, I believe Moore not only was an incredible guitarist, but also an incredible musician in his own right -- something I think he more than proved on his second solo album "Time Odyssey," where he played a variation of Air on a G String and Piano Concerto No. 5 by Johann Sebastian Bach. But this first one was the one that started it all -- for me and millions of other guitar fans and players everywhere. For more information on Moore and what he's up to now, including touring with the supergroup UFO, visit his site: www.vinniemoore.com. According to his MySpace site: www.myspace.com/vinniemoore, his first professional work in the music business was with Pepsi, where he was featured in the this commercial:

(Note: I don't mind posting a commercial for Pepsi, since my late grandfather worked for them for over 30 years).

The Road To Hell by Chris Rea: I don't even know how I discovered this album. I might have been listening to Rock 107 in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at the time, but I'm not sure. I just know that as soon as I heard the album, I loved it. His sound, both his vocals and his guitar, are very distinctive to me. I've since learned he is British. The best tracks on this album, from what I remember, are the title track, "Texas" and "Daytona." Below are videos for the title track and "Texas." The only YouTube videos I could find for "Daytona" weren't the best, with the one incorrectly connecting the song with NASCAR. From what I learned elsewhere, Rea liked Ferrari Daytonas and that's why he wrote the song. For more on what Rea is up to now, visit his site: www.chrisrea.com, although I found more biographical information about Rea at a fan site here: www.chrisrea.nl.

What A Crying Shame by The Mavericks: I'll be honest I don't know if this is my CD or the wife's or if we both had copies and we got rid of one of our copies, so it might be either one of ours. Regardless of whose it is, it is a phenomenal record, and may not be as underrated as I like to think it is -- as I have discovered that it went platinum. However, I don't think it's an album a lot of people may remember, with the biggest hit, the title track, climbing to No. 25 on the Billboard country charts in 1994 when the album came out and may get lost with Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson and the like who were "big" that year. The Mavericks were led by Raul Malo, who later was married for a short time to Trisha Yearwood.

Teatro by Willie Nelson: I think I heard this on WXPN, www.wxpn.org, from Philadelphia, which played a lot of alternative music usually, and when I say alternative, meaning not Pearl Jam and the like, although they'd play them occasionally too, I mean a little bit outside the mainstream. In fact, at one time, before I realized how much space it took up on our memory-deficient computer, I even had a WXPN-ish playlist with all the albums and songs that we bought either as a result of hearing the artists or groups on WXPN or fit into the category of what XPN sounds like. Before I deleted them, I think I was up to about 500 songs from I don't know how many different albums. But I digress...back to this album. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and presented a different side of Willie Nelson to me (not that I was entirely opposed to him because I always loved "Mama Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys," especially in the "The Electric Horseman," which is one of my favorite movies). I think it probably presented a different side of Nelson to a lot of people. The only track I could find on YouTube was this one with he and Emmylou Harris singing on what looks like the David Letterman show:

For more information on Nelson's latest projects, visit his site: www.willienelson.com.

I Am Shelby Lynne by Shelby Lynne: From what I understand, this was Lynne's breakthrough album, after being pigeonholed as country, for a number of years -- not that she lost the country moniker or feel, but definitely became more pop after this. This was the start of her breaking out into the mainstream, that from what I understand has led to some really good albums since then. Unfortunately, I must sadly admit I don't have any of them, but I'm certainly thinking about checking them out after relistening to this album. For more information on Lynne, visit her site: www.shelbylynne.com, where new music from her new album Just A Little Lovin' with covers of Dusty Springfield (another of my favorites) songs and a new song sounded divine. I would have embedded a YouTube video, but UniversalMusicGroup wouldn't let me, but maybe I can at least provide this link to their video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9XmaxuYSOM, where you can watch the video for the song "Your Lies".

 

Disse l'Occhio: "Guardate che bella montagna abbiamo sul nostro orizzonte!".
L'Orecchio tentò di udirla, ma non ci riuscì.
Allora la Mano disse: "Sto cercando di sentirla, ma non la trovo".
Fu la volta del Naso: "Non c'è nessuna montagna, perché non ne sento l'odore".
E tutti giunsero alla conclusione che l'Occhio era in errore.

In sottofondo: "Looking for the summer" - Chris Rea