retrobug-a-loo

For some strange reason, for me, most of my very favourite, stand the test-of-time, music was made in the late 60s and early 70s. I didn't listen to any of this stuff growing up because the only music my parents listened to was country. You know, I've never been able to work out the relationship between the Scottish and country music. Of course, there's the obvious universal concerns about relationships, but the social and political context just seems so very different. Anyway, Scottish people love country music. I guess that's all there is to it. Now, back to what I was saying, I didn't start buying my own music until I started work when I was 16. I was never really into chart music as such, although I did listen religiously to the BBC charts on Sunday evening and watch Top of The Pops every week, of course, like everyone else. Recently, I have noticed that a lot of young whipper-snapper bands are producing music that harks back to my golden age of rock. I've been listening to a couple of new bands a lot and I thought I would share with you a couple of tracks. The first is a track called Set Us Free by the band called Black Mountain. Heavily influenced by Led Zeppellin, they make music that is an amalgamation of rock styles from over the last 30 or 40 years, and yet they do it with such verve and committment that it begins to sound fresh again. The other track is 1970 by Black Cab, a long meandering affair. The final track on the concept album, The Altamont Diary, which deals with the way in which the killing at the famous concert signalled the end of the summer of love. Great stuff!

While I'm here, I might as well mention Neil Diamond, who has a new Rick Rubin produced album out at the moment, called 12 Songs, although the version I have has 14 songs on it. Not sure what that's all about. Rubin, who did wonders for Johnny Cash, has done the same for Neil Diamond. The music is pared back to the basics of Diamond's always wonderful voice, and his guitar. Listening to this reminds me just how good Neil Diamond is once he is stripped of the bombast that has marred his music over the last 20 years or so. There really isn't a dud track on the album, but I thought you would like this one, Save Me A Saturday Night.