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Monday, March 31, 2008Symphonic James Bond
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
MSO Pops Series 2008 Sunday 30th March 2008  I’ve always loved the pre-credit sequence to the Bond film Goldeneye, but not for any of the reasons that you are thinking of. As much as I wish to live the Bondian lifestyle, Vodka Martinis (or should that be Martinus – plural?) are not my friend. I’ve made friends with Gin & Tonics on hot days. When the mood takes me, I have formed working relationships with red and dry white wines. And after a fine meal, I have enjoyed the company of a small tipple of port. But above all I enjoy spending time with a good beer. And that’s why I love Goldeneye’s opening sequence. It answers the question I’d wanted to know for years – does James Bond enjoy a beer? And I am pleased to say that the answer is YES!In the opening scene at the Archangel Chemical Facility, as a swarm of Russian troops storm Bond and Alec Trevalyn’s position, Alec yell’s out “Closing time, James...last call!” Bond’s response is simple, but to the point: “Buy me a pint!” So with that in mind, I had no compunction about stopping at P.J. O’Briens Pub for a pint of Kilkenny on my way the the (M.S.O.) Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Symphonic James Bond performance at the Melbourne Arts Centre. Suitably lubricated and relaxed, I made my way to the auditorium and found my seat. Sad as this may be, to amuse myself, while the orchestra took up their position, I had to assign each orchestra member, based on appearance, a character from a Bond film. In a symphony orchestra you don’t get many James Bonds. But you do get a few Dr. Kaufmann’s and Kristatos’s, the odd Boris Grushenko, and even a Max Kalba. For the girls, there was a Helga Brandt, a very nice Nataya Simonova and inevitably a Kara Milovy. There was one Dame Judi, and an Irma Bunt too. I am please to say the conductor and host for the performance wasn’t a hack. It was Carl Davis, who is not only a conductor and Bond fan (naturally), but also a composer, having written the scores to The French Lieutenant’s Women, Champions, Scandal, The Rainbow and Topsy Turvy amongst many others. Setting the style for the show, he came out in a long gold jacket. During the show, Davis would give brief, casual commentary about the Bond series and each piece of music the orchestra was about to play. I got the impression, that Davis was very knowledgeable but had to dumb down some of his comments just to keep the show moving – which makes sense, because not everybody is a Bond freak like me. But there is one item in the show that caused me a bit of concern. I am sure that Davis knows the truth, but chose to go with the simple overview, rather than clarify the truth. I am talking about the music for the tank chase in Goldeneye, but we will get to that later on. On with the show. DR. NO The show opener, naturally enough was The James Bond Theme. Sure it didn’t feature Vic Flick’s famous distorted guitar, but the orchestra nailed it. It sounded right. It sounded good. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE Two emotions came over me, when the orchestra started to play From Russia With Love. The first was an almost uncontrollable urge to jump on stage and grab the microphone and belt out the words. But hey, I’m no Matt Monroe. Next as I listened, I almost burst into tears. The song was beautiful, and here I was in an auditorium, listening to some of my favourite pieces of music performed by a complete orchestra, with strings, brass, drums, harp – everything. Could life get any better? GOLDFINGER At this point of the show we meet Mary Carewe, the vocalist for the performance. Carewe’s background is in musical theatre and cabaret, so she is more in the style of Shirley Bassey, than say Shirley Manson from Garbage. This has positives and negatives. When she sings the songs of Shirley Bassey, well unfortunately, she is gonna to be compared to Dame Shirley, and inevitably fall short. But when she sings the songs by other performers, if you close your eyes, you can almost imagine what they would be like if Bassey was singing them. Anyway, Mary came out in a shimmering white dress, with naturally a few sequins and belted out Goldfinger. It was good, but I felt it lacked that punch at the end. But those who have heard Dame Shirley tell the story of the original Goldfinger recording session may guess to the reason why? Mary sauntered off stage, and the orchestra leapt into a great version of Dawn Raid On Fort Knox – the string section working overtime. THUNDERBALL The version of Thunderball was bold and brassy – just like it should be. CASINO ROYALE Next we had the ring-in material. Mary was back on stage to perform a rendition of Burt Bacharach’s (and Dusty Springfield’s) The Look Of Love. In all honesty, this left me a bit cold. YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE But everything was back on track for the orchestral rendition of You Only Live Twice. This was truly a beautiful rendition, and the percussionists, subtly in the background, gave the song a nice Oriental feel. ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE The version of We Have All The time In The World was sublime. I don’t usually used words like ‘beautiful’ and ‘sublime’ in my reviews, but somehow saying “Dude, this rocks!” just seems so wrong. But for me We Have All The time In The World is one of greatest and most poignant of the Bond songs, and the M.S.O. captured that sense of melancholy. Excuse me, while I pull out my hanky and dry my eyes. DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER Mary had the right cheeky swagger to pull off Diamonds Are Forever and from there she strode straight into: LIVE AND LET DIE The theme from Live And Let Die is probably a very difficult song to do in one take, with it’s changes in pace. And I think the M.S.O. lurched a bit into the faster sections of the song. Once they were all there, they were together, it’s just some got there earlier than others. Mary appeared to be having a good time, strutting around, belting out Paul & Linda McCartney’s lyrics. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME The orchestra seemed to like Marvin Hamlisch’s material. They really excelled on The Voyage To Atlantis and Nobody Does It Better. Mary was back on stage for the later and gave it her all. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY After a brief interval, Davis was back on stage in a purple coat, and Mary had changed into a heavily sequined gunmetal coloured frock. For Your Eyes Only is not one of my favourite Bond songs, so I didn’t pay too much attention to the music – just to Mary’s dress. Sorry. MOONRAKER Ah, Moonraker it’s like a delicate flower, and amongst the bombastic, brassy Bond themes, it does tend to be over looked. I like the song, and Mary’s rendition was good, but this song is more of a showpiece for the orchestra. THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN The Man With The Golden Gun is probably the crudest and most brash of the Bond songs, and as such, it is also the most fun. Again Mary strutted around the stage, asking the question we all ask: Who will Scaramanga Bang next? THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS The Living Daylights was an orchestral highlight. The song is big, bold and brassy and the M.S.O. really hit their stride with this one – and how many more times do you think I can use the words ‘Bold’ and ‘Brassy’ in this review? It’s the alliteration I like. Bond. Big. Bold. Brassy. Bombastic. LICENCE TO KILL Mary was back onstage in a new purple frock for a License To Kill which was fine. GOLDENEYE Okay folks, this is where the controversy starts. The first musical selection for Goldeneye was A Pleasant Ride In St. Petersburg (Tank Chase). As I understand it, the producers of the bond movies weren’t too happy with Eric Serra’s score for this section of the film, and his refusal to use the Monty Normal James Bond Theme. The producers had Serra's orchestrator, John Altman rescore the entire tank chase sequence. Davis in his pre-song commentary describes how Serra had to juggle to energy and power of the action scene with the cool suaveness of the Bond character. I think he should have mentioned Altman’s involvement. But hey, that’s real nitpicking. In the end though, musically, this is the weakest musical number in the show. After the show I even heard comments describing the number as ‘boring’. This was followed by a routine version of Goldeneye. THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH So we move from the worst number, to in my opinion the best performance of the show. Earlier I mentioned how Mary Carewe could evoke Shirley Bassey. Well here she does. I have never been a huge fan of Garbage’s theme for The World Is Not Enough – I didn’t hate it – but didn’t really embrace it either. But here, with the M.S.O. evoking the spirit of John Barry’s Orchestra, and Mary Carewe evoking the spirit of Dame Shirley, musically I was taken back to a time when all Bond song’s were great (before Madonna). Seriously, the song came alive and seemed like a proper Bond song, rather than a pop song stuck at the front of a Bond movie. CASINO ROYALE Mary and the orchestra followed their show-stopper with a solid, but not particularly inspired cover of You Know My Name. DR. NO The M.S.O. reprised The James Bond Theme and we all clapped very loudly. TOMORROW NEVER DIES For an encore, we were treated to an earnest rendition of the criminally ignored, Surrender from the Tomorrow Never Dies soundtrack, originally performed by k.d. Lang. It was a nice way to end the show. In in all it was a pretty good show. As it’s a symphony orchestra, I get the impression that depending on the venue, where you sit, can have a bit of a bearing on the sound that you hear. I thought the sound quality was very good, but on occasions the brass section did overwhelm things, but then again, maybe the musicians just got excited and played louder and louder. And who could blame them. Hey, I wanted to join in singing, remember! But if by reading this, you feel you have missed out on something, don’t despair. It looks like Carl Davis and Mary Carewe have combined with many symphony orchestras around the world to bring you this show. So I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s coming to your neck of the woods soon. The linked soundtrack albums were put together by THXjay at The Crime Lounge and feature some tracks not on the original recordings. Labels: Concerts posted by David at 4:44 AM | 1 Comments | Tuesday, March 25, 2008Beware Of The Dog
Hound Dog Taylor And The House Rockers
Alligator Records 1976  A live album can tell you a lot about a musician. It reveals the truth. These days with additional studio overdubs, the truth may be a little harder to find, but it’s in there somewhere. Beware Of The Dog doesn't have any overdubbing. It’s just three guys, Hound Dog Taylor on guitar and vocals, Brewer Philips on guitar, and Ted Harvey on drums. And these three guys hammer out the blues. There’s all kinds of blues music. There’s the kind with guitar gods who spiral off into the stratosphere, with their eyes closed, and their guitars conveying their pain. And there are the guys who locked into a groove and ride it for all it’s worth. Hound Dog Taylor And The House Rockers fall into the latter category. The sound is pretty raw. No bass. No keyboards.TRACK LISTING: 01. Give Me Back My Wig 02. The Sun Is Shining 03. Kitchen Sink Boogie 04. Dust My Broom 05. Comin’ Around The Mountain 06. Let’s Get Funky 07. Rock Me 08. It’s Allright 09. Freddie’s Blues There’s no filler on this album. Each track on this album is straight ahead blues. Give Me Back My Wig, Kitchen Sink Boogie and Dust My Broom are full tilt rockers. Let’s Get Funky locks in on the ultimate blues groove. Only for Freddie’s Blues do they pull back and show you what they really can do. Hound Dog Taylor And The House Rockers were there to entertain and that’s what they do. What I find truly remarkable, it that when these shows were recorded in 1974, Hound Dog Taylor was 58 years old, and he was still playing three shows a night. Sadly though, the following year, Hound Dog Taylor died of cancer. Maybe he had it when he recorded this album. I don’t know, but it goes back to what I was saying earlier – each live album reveals the truth. And this one reveals that Hound Dog Taylor had a huge heart and soul, and was foremost an entertainer. Labels: Blues posted by David at 2:43 AM | 0 Comments | Friday, March 7, 2008Tom Jones: Live Caesars Palace
Varése Saraband Records - Re-issue (1971)
 I found my knife in my hand, and she laughed no more!As production techniques got better in the late 60’s and early 70’s, songs began to get really big. Added to usual band line ups, were string and brass sections and girl backing vocal groups. Through all this came a new type of song - ‘The Psycho Drama’. These were songs that were massively overproduced and dripping with emotion. The Queens of this type of music were Shirley Bassey, Nancy Sinatra, Dusty Springfield and Cilla Black. The kings were Roy Orbison, The Righteous Brothers and Tom Jones. Now I love Tom, and I love all his overblown crowd pleasers like Delilah, I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, and Daughter Of Darkness. But one fine day I was travelling back home from rural Victoria, and was channel hopping on the car radio. Finally I landed on a independent radio station that was playing some really good live soul recordings. As I travelled on, I thought, hey I recognise that voice – that’s Tom Jones. It wasn’t his usual repertoire, it was a selection of old soul classics. And they were bloody good. As this station was run by volunteers, they didn’t feel the need to impart any information about the music they were playing, and to this very day, I do not know the name of the album that these songs come from. So many years have past, I am wondering if it really sounded like that at all? But I knew there was a great Tom Jones live album out there somewhere, and tried to track it down. My first attempt was Tom Jones: Live Caesars Palace. It’s not the album I was after, but it’s so good, in a very different kind of way. This is Tom at the height of his manly appeal. In fact the whole album is interrupted with girls throwing themselves at Tom. But this just adds to the show. And the music is all of his big ‘psycho drama’ tunes. If you want to see a grown man cry, just play me his version of I (Who Have Nothing), and I’ll be a blubbering mess. TRACK LISTING: 01. Dance Of Love 02. Caberet 03. Soul Man 04. I (Who Have Nothing) 05. Delilah 06. Bridge Over Troubled Water 07. My Way 08. God Bless The Children 09. Resurrection Shuffle 10. She’s A Lady 11. Till 12. Hit Medley: - I’ll Never Fall In Love, Daughter Of Darkness, Love Me Tonight, It’s Not Unusal 13. Hi Heel Sneakers 14. Rock ‘N’ Roll Medley: - Johnny B Goode, Bony Maronie, Long Tall Sally Sound wise, the album is very good, and the arrangements by Johnnie Spence are perfect for a recording of this era (if it was done today, there’d be more emphasis on the bass). The line up for this show includes: Tom Jones – vocals and whipping the ladies in the crowd into a frenzy, Jim Sullivan – Lead Guitar, Kenny Clare – Drums, John Rostill – Bass Guitar, Bobby Shew – Lead Trumpet. If your a fan of Tom Jones, I’d go as far as to say, this album is a ‘must have’. Of course if you're a ‘tourist’ there are plenty of fine compilations out there, which feature more of his big ‘hits’. And finally, here’s my plea, if you know the live Tom Jones album where he performs all the great soul numbers, please leave a comment... I am getting older and my memory is fading, and need to know if it really exists. Labels: Artist: Tom Jones posted by David at 5:18 PM | 4 Comments | Saturday, March 1, 2008Trojan Sound System
Trojan Records 2006
 For those who don’t know Trojan Records, then I guess you’re not a big reggae fan. From my perspective (limited though it may be), there are only three decent reggae record labels – the first is Studio One, the second is Trojan Records, and by weird default, Island Records is the third (because they had Bob Marley on their label – but they also had U2, Grace Jones and Tom Waits – so you can’t really call them a reggae label).Trojan Sound System is a compilation album that’s a bit different to most. It’s put together as if it were a live show, with the DJ’s introducing the songs and chanting lyrics in the appropriate rhythm loops. They’ve taken a whole swag of Reggae, Dub and Ska songs and mashed them all together. Some of the songs are pretty well known, like Police And Thieves and Soul Rebel, but others are more obscure. It all flows together very smoothly. Of course, on an collection like this, there’s a few songs about marijuana: Linval Thompson I Love Marihuana and Richie Spice Marijuana. Hey, they're not just selling music, they’re selling a lifestyle. If that’s your bag, man, then enjoy, but the best songs on the CD are The Heptones Through The Fire I Come and Johnny Osbourne Everything Is Everything. What I like about this album is that it makes reggae a bit more contemporary again. Let’s face it, as a musical genre it hasn’t really changed much since the early seventies (that’s not to say that there aren’t any fantastic exponents out there – there are). But this kind of remixxing brings the music to anew younger audience, but still retains the heart and soul of the original recordings. TRACK LISTING: 01. Keith Hudson – Melody Maker 02. Bob Marley And The Wailers – Soul Rebel 03. The Sons Of Light – Land Of Love 04. The Harry J All Stars – Liquidator 05. The Heptones – Through The Fire I Come (Extended Mix) 06. Ronnie Davies – False Leaders 07. Don Carlos – Laser Beam 08. Linval Thompson – I Love Marijuana 09. Michael Rose – Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner 10. Johnny Clarke – Peace And Love In The Ghetto 11. Dennis Brown – Revolution 12. Junior Murvin – Police And Thieves 13. Admiral Bailey – No Wey No Better Than Yard 14. Johhny Osbourne – Everything Is Everything 15. Richie Spice – Marijuana 16. Dandy Livingstone – Rudy, A Message To You If you’re interested in reggae, dub or ska music but you’ve been a bit afraid to venture beyond Bob Marley and Toots And The Maytals then this (or any) of the Trojan compilations are a good place to start. Most aren’t expensive and have a good spread of music. Once you’ve had a few listens, it’s easier to home in on the artists that you like – and maybe pick up a couple of their albums. Labels: Reggae posted by David at 12:30 AM | 0 Comments | |
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