Happy 77th Birthday Mr Boz Scaggs

William Royce Scaggs was born on this day in 1944 in Canton, Ohio. He's better known to the world as Boz Scaggs. Boz had learned to play the guitar by the age of 12 and by the age of 15 he had met Steve Miller at school in Texas and was the lead vocalist for Miller's band The Marksmen. Both Boz and Steve Miller attended University together and continued playing in Blues bands together. After finishing University they both went their separate ways, Scaggs to London and Miller to Chicago to immerse himself in the Blues. That wouldn't be their last meeting though.

After a spell in London he found himself in Sweden where in 1965 he recorded his debut album for Polydor Records, simply called 'Boz'. It didn't sell well and is very hard to find these days as only 300 copies were pressed and released in a wraparound picture cover. It contains two traditional songs that Scaggs arranged himself and the other ten songs are all cover songs.

In 1967 he returned to the States and hooked up once again with Steve Miller and would play on 'Children of the Future' and 'Sailor', the first two studio albums by the Steve Miller Band released in 1968. The picture below is of the Steve Miller Band.

In 1968 Scaggs secured a record deal with Atlantic Records, releasing his second album, 'Boz Scaggs', featuring the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and session guitarist Duane Allman, in 1969. The album failed to chart despite a number of good reviews.

A further four albums between 1971-1974 brought a little attention though only 'Slow Dancer' (1974) broke into the Top 100, peaking at #81.

In 1976 he released 'Silk Degrees', which would become the most successful album of his career. It stayed on the US chart for 115 weeks peaking at #2 and spawned four hit singles: It's Over (#38 in the US), Lowdown (#3 in the US, #28 in the UK), What Can I Say (#42 in the US, #10 in the UK) and Lido Shuffle (#11 in the US, #13 in the UK).

Since those heady days of the 70s Boz Scaggs continued to release albums that charted but never again like the success of 'Silk Degrees'. In the last decade he has returned to the Blues with three fantastic albums, 'Memphis' (2013), 'A Fool To Care' (2015) and his latest release 'Out of the Blues' (2018). He still plays live, but like many has been prevented from doing so due to the pandemic. To finish off here's a track from each of those:

The Howlin' Wolf Album - Howlin' Wolf (1969)

This is an album I don't actually have in my collection but I think I am going to track it down. I stumbled on it thanks to Patrick Carney of The Black Keys in a recent interview with Andrew Perry for Mojo (#332). He mentioned it as one of his favourites and I was quite taken with the album cover, which I thought was a hilarious way to market a new album.

Apparently Howlin' Wolf didn't like this album of Psychedelic Blues too much and for bizzare reasons Cadet Concept (a subsidiary of Chess Records), the label it was released on 1969 decided to use the album cover to convey that with the words 'This Is Howlin' Wolf's New Album. He Doesn't Like It. He Didn't Like His Electric Guitar At First Either.' in very bold lettering on the front cover! According to Chess, the album's cover hurt its sales. Chess states that "I used negativity in the title, and it was a big lesson: You can't say on the cover that the artist didn't like the album. It didn't really sell that well. But it was just an attempt. They were just experiments." Howlin' Wolf stated that the album was "dog shit", which again wouldn't have drummed up sales for it!

So let's have a listen to the album track by track. It's mainly Willie Dixon songs but it includes three songs by Chester Burnett (AKA as Howlin' Wolf). Enjoy.

1. Spoonful - written by Willie Dixon

2. Tail Dragger - written by Willie Dixon

3. Smokestack Lightning - written by Chester Burnett

4. Moanin' At Midnight - written by Chester Burnett

5. Built For Comfort - written by Willie Dixon

1. The Red Rooster - written by Willie Dixon

2. Evil - written by Chester Burnett

3. Down In The Bottom - written by Willie Dixon

4. Three Hundred Pounds Of Joy - written by Willie Dixon

5. Back Door Man - written by Willie Dixon

The Problem Of Leisure - A Celebration Of Andy Gill & The Gang Of Four - Various

A new Compilation celebrating Andy Gill & The Gang of Four was released on Friday 4th June 2021. All the Artwork has been done by Damien Hirst, who is a longtime fan of the band. All the Artwork is © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd.

After Andy Gill’s death in February 2020, his widow, Catherine Mayer assembled a small team to complete 'The Problem of Leisure'. The record had originally been conceived by Andy Gill himself not as a post-mortem tribute, but to mark the 40th anniversary in 2019 of Gang Of Four’s extraordinary 1979 debut long player 'Entertainment!' an album widely heralded as a classic (“the fifth best punk album of all time” according to Rolling Stone magazine). Personally speaking I would have loved to hear that as a couple of songs I thought might be on this are not...'I Found The Essence Rare' and 'At Home (He's A Tourist)'.

Andy Gill had already revised that vision in the months before his death, after some artists chose tracks from different albums and periods. Every musician who committed to the project was given the freedom to create new versions of whichever Gang of Four songs they wanted to cover, with Andy overseeing some of the earlier productions but largely leaving artists to create their own interpretations.

This leaving "the artists to their own interpretations" means that we end up with two versions of 'Damaged Goods', 'I Love A Man In A Uniform', and 'Natural's Not It' and three versions of 'Not Great Men'. Yes they are all different but it feels like they could have had other songs rather than being repetitive with choices.

It is released on a number of different formats: Limited Edition 2CD packaged like a hardback book with a 12 page booklet of Artwork by Damien Hirst. Includes googly eye attachment on the front sleeve. A Standard one CD version. Dogluxe Limited Edition double vinyl pressed on Red Vinyl (Individually numbered - edition of 650). Standard black double vinyl with a gatefold sleeve. Pink Cassette version and also a Download version.

Let's have some music. The album opens with probably the strongest song, 'Damaged Goods' by IDLES

IDLES say: “IDLES does not exist without Gang of Four. ‘Damaged Goods’ still sounds new and exciting after the millionth listen. We jumped at the chance to just play it, let alone record it. It was an honour, a joy and a privilege”

Another song that featured on the debut 'Damaged Goods EP' also appears on the album, 'Love Like Anthrax' by Gary Numan & Ade Fenton, though I have to confess to barely recognising it!

A number of Digital Download Singles were released leading up to the album's release. Here's a few starting with 'Paralysed' by Warpaint.

'Where The Nightingale Sings (Redux)' by 3D x Gang Of Four featuring Nova Twins

Page Hamilton from Helmet says, “My old pal Henry Rollins reissued Entertainment! and Solid Gold back in the 90’s and asked me to do liner notes for Solid Gold. I don’t remember what I wrote but I know it was glowing, corny and fanboy. Their songs, feel, energy, inventiveness made an indelible imprint on my musical soul. All of our peers that formed bands in the late 80’s were influenced by Go4. I chose ‘In the Ditch’ for this tribute cause it’s a great song even though it was challenging (thank you to my band!). It feels improvised and random at times but holds together as a composition. The guitar part feels like spontaneous scratchy funk, the angular bass and drum groove grooves hard but sounds like there’s a spoke missing. The vocal is somehow beautiful but scary, urgent and dangerous. There’s no room for limp dick, mail-it-in, non-musical moments in any of these songs. How the hell did they put this together? We could only try to capture the intensity of the original. This band changed me. Thank you Andy, Dave, Hugo & Jon.”

'I Love A Man In A Uniform' by Herbert Grönemeyer featuring Alex Silva

'Natural’s Not In It' by Tom Morello & Serj Tankian

Tom Morello: “Andy Gill was one of a handful of artists in history who changed the way guitars are played. His band Gang of Four were just incendiary and completely groundbreaking with Andy’s confrontational, unnerving and sublime playing at the forefront. His jagged plague-disco raptor-attack industrial-funk deconstructed guitar anti-hero sonics and fierce poetic radical intellect were hugely influential to me.”

Songs from a Haunted Ballroom - Skids (Released 4th June 2021...That's Today!!)

There I was this morning, "sitting in a Northernly direction, minding my own business" (as my good butty Ralph McPhlugg would say), when I realised that veteran Scottish punk rock outfit Skids have just released their brand new studio album today and it's a collection of electrifying cover tunes that pays tribute to the band’s hometown venue, the historic Kinema Ballroom in Dunfermline, Scotland. It is released on Cleopatra Records on CD and Limited Edition Coloured Vinyl, as well as Digital Platforms.

Skids take a walk down memory lane, performing songs by the bands who influenced them in those early years. Songs From A Haunted Ballroom includes unique and superbly (most of the time) arranged new versions of tracks by The Clash, The Adverts, Ultravox!, Sex Pistols, and Magazine PLUS new versions of their own early hits “Into The Valley” and “The Saints Are Coming!”

“John Foxx of Ultravox! was cool, handsome and wrote poetry rather than lyrics. He made it ok for the rest of us to be a bit arty. ‘Young Savage’ was a massive hit in the Kinema”. “I’ve loved working on this album,” Richard Jobson continues, “It reminded me of those early cathartic days, and of course where I came from. The place that made me what I am. I would like to dedicate the album to all of the Punks and Ghosts from the day of The Kinema who like me had their life transformed through a love of music.”

It's not an album that will please all the "Punk Purists" out there and I even shuddered a little when I heard their take on 'Heart of the City' (originally done by Nick Lowe). So here's a few tracks to whet your appetite, starting with 'Complete Control' (The Clash):

'The Light Pours Out Of Me' (Magazine):

'Submission' (Sex Pistols):

And the Re-recordings of two of their finest songs:

Happy Birthday Suzi Quatro

Detroit, Michigan...When I hear that my brain reacts like Alexa and begins listing some of the great musical talent that has come forth from there to enhance my musical enjoyment...Aretha Franklin, MC5, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Bob Seger, Del Shannon, Edwin Starr, The Four Tops, John Lee Hooker, The Knack, The Stooges, Wilson Pickett and The White Stripes to name but a few. But one name I often forget, mainly because she seems to have spent so much time in the UK, is Susan Kay Quatro (known to you and me as Suzi Quatro. Today is her 71st Birthday and she's still rockin' having released her 18th album, 'The Devil In Me' back at the end of March this year. Since 1964 with The Pleasure Seekers (with her sister Patti Quatro and later her other sisters Arlene and Nancy)through the Glam Rock years of the seventies, periods of Acting and being a Radio Host, and then back on stage again tearing it up with Andy Scott (Sweet) and Don Powell (Slade)in 2017, she's back doing what she was born to do.

"Before I did what I did, we didn't have a place in rock 'n' roll. Not really. You had your Grace Slick and all that, but that's not what I did. I was the first to be taken seriously as a female rock 'n' roll musician and singer. That hadn't been done before. I played the boys at their own game. For everybody that came afterward, it was a little bit easier, which is good. I'm proud of that. If I have a legacy, that's what it is. It's nothing I take lightly. It was gonna happen sooner or later. In 2014, I will have done my job 50 years. It was gonna be done by somebody, and I think it fell to me to do because I don't look at gender. I never have. It doesn't occur to me if a 6-foot-tall guy has pissed me off not to square up to him. That's just the way I am. If I wanted to play a bass solo, it never occurred to me that I couldn't. When I saw Elvis for the first time when I was 5, I decided I wanted to be him, and it didn't occur to me that he was a guy. That's why it had to fall to somebody like me." - Suzi Quatro interview in 2013 for the Detroit Metro Times

Here's a few songs from the latest album beginning with the title track The Devil In Me

I Sold My Soul Today

Do Ya Dance

Darkness On The Edge of Town - Bruce Springsteen (1978)

Released on this day (2nd June) in 1978 and reached #5 on the US Chart and #16 on the UK Chart. It was Produced by Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau and Steven Van Zandt

Frank Stefanko did the photography for the album and the shoot had taken place at his house in New Jersey. Springsteen said, "When I saw the picture I said, 'That's the guy in the songs.' I wanted the part of me that's still that guy to be on the cover. Frank stripped away all your celebrity and left you with your essence. That's what that record was about."

Below are some Live versions of the songs that are on the album from across the years since the album was released, as I believe that they actually sound much better than the studio version. So let's begin with Side 1.

1. Badlands (Live in 1978 from Phoenix)

2. Adam Raised A Cain (Live in 2009 from Stockholm)

3. Something In The Night (Rare 1976 Live Version that's very different to the Album Recording. I must admit that I like this version and wish he had retained it. Live at The Palladium, New York. November 2, 1976.)

4. Candy's Room (Live in Houston 1978)

5. Racing In The Street (Live at Meadowlands Arena, E. Rutherford, NJ - July 1981. Released on the Live 1975-85 Boxset)

And now Side 2

1. The Promised Land (Live in Barcelona 2002 on The Rising Tour)

2. Factory (Live in Philadelphia 25th September 1999)

3. Streets of Fire (Live from Winterland 15th December 1978)

4. Prove It All Night (With the 1978 Intro. Live in Sydney 22nd March 2013)

5. Darkness On The Edge of Town (Live at Madison Square Gardens, NYC on the Reunion Tour)

"My own thoughts about the album at the time (I was 15 years old when it came out!) was that here was a bloke who knew a thing or two about life and was able to communicate something of the desolation of being stuck somewhere you didn't want to be. I always get a bit annoyed by people who assume that because Bruce is American and he's often writing from an American perspective that he has nothing in common with those outside of the USA. But the fact is alienation, struggle, relationship issues, despair and hope etc are actually very universal themes so it's quite easy I think to find yourself in his songs even if you were growing up in London in 1978." - I wrote those words for my previous blog, Soundtrack4Life, quite a few years ago.

Intruder - Gary Numan (May 2021)

Studio Album #21 from Gary Numan, who seems to be enjoying a great period of productivity at the moment, with 'Intruder' being his fourth album in ten years being released on 21st May 2021. In the first week of release it hit the #2 spot on the UK Album Chart (just like his previous album 'Savage (Songs from a Broken World'.

The album is released in three Limited Edition Double Vinyl sets (with two extra tracks), in Gold, Silver and Red. It's also released as a Picture Disc (also with the two extra tracks).

There's a Deluxe CD Edition (with one extra track...not very Deluxe then!), Download and even a Cassette Version (they are really making a comeback!).

What of the music? A taster to the release was the Official Video for 'Intruder'

Response to the album from the Music Critics has generally been quite warm. I had to laugh at Gary Ryan of the NME when he said, "Numan’s late-career glow-up continues apace with ‘Intruder’. Sounding like Greta Thunberg in the local goth-disco", but he did go on to say, "This record’s author has always sounded slightly out of time...with ‘Intruder’, he’s chiming with the times – and sounding thrillingly relevant in the process."