The Inspirational Solo Artist
As I have stated in other blogs...my parents...especially my Dad...have been a massive influence on the music I listened to when I was growing up. We always had music on in the house...although the radio was very rarely on...usually it was from the wide array of vinyl and cassette tapes that were in their collection. My Dad used to rule the roost over what we listened to in those days which meant I was ‘made to’ listen to music I would not usually have listened to on my own...Captain Beefheart and John Cooper Clarke sit happily in that category...probably at a time that my brother was listening to INXS, T’Pau and Deacon Blue whilst trying to look like one of the boro players of the late 80s (think Colin Cooper but without the bleached hair)...I was a mop haired kid that was struggling with his musical taste...flitting between my parents 7” vinyl collection which was mainly Mum’s Beatles and Stones singles and my own shit radio chart rock...Def Leppard, Bon Jovi and Billy Idol. It didn’t take me long before some of the tapes that my Dad was playing started to become quite an interesting listen. I have tried to narrow down my favourite Solo artists that have influenced my musical taste over the years...I tried to get it down to 5 or 6 but I couldn’t...so here are the 12 that are the most important.
Nick Drake
Before I heard Nick Drake I would not have thought that music could be called beautiful, haunting or melancholic. At this point in my life I was used to loud guitars and singers shouting about nothing of interest...suddenly...there was this man with this beautifully soft and serene voice that had the power to travel through time and seek out those lonely places that exist in us all. It is only as I have grown up with his songs ingrained into my psyche that I respect his music even more...and that is very much how others have also seen it. This now cult figure in musical history was a man who didn’t sell many records when he was alive...he barely toured the albums that he released and refused to do the necessary press functions that followed those releases...that left him with little or no initial response to his albums.
Drake had suffered from depression and was later diagnosed with suffering from schizophrenia and It was his near-crippling mental illness that...indirectly or directly...lead to his untimely death in 1974 at the age of 26...overdosing on his anti-depressants. He left behind 3 albums that have all graced ‘best of’ lists over the years. For me though it was his first album ‘Five Leaves Left’ released in 1969 that is the one that impressed me the most. There are 3 songs in particular that blew me away...if you are going to listen to any of his songs I would highly recommend them...they are ‘River Man’, ‘Cello Song’ and the quite amazing ‘Time Has Told Me’.
Bob Dylan
Robert Allen Zimmerman...Arguably the best and most influential singer/songwriter ever!!! I don’t need to write anything else do I? After enrolling at the University of Minneapolis and becoming a firm fixture in the upcoming folk scene he started using the name Bob Dylan. After quitting University he started to tour and was soon snapped up by Columbia Records...he released “Blowing In The Wind” and “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” and was soon pigeonholed as a protest singer due to the ongoing social problems in America...about the Bomb... racial prejudice and conformity...which also included some of his best work. He soon changed direction...as he has done many times in his career with the release of “Another Side Of Bob Dylan” which was a step too far for many a folk critic of the time.
One thing that stands out for me is that he wrote everything himself...played the guitar and sang it so well with a voice so remarkable and unique that people can tell you it’s Dylan within a couple of seconds of hearing it. Sam Cooke once said that “it's not going to be about how pretty the voice is. It's going to be about believing that the voice is telling the truth” and that is what makes Dylan stand out...he has a believable singing voice to go along with his storytelling lyrics and this makes his songs very powerful.
Personally...I think his albums from his debut in 1962 ‘Bob Dylan’ up until ‘Highway 51 Revisited’ in 1965 are his best albums and best single releases...I asked my Dad what his favourite Dylan songs were and he said he couldn’t choose...there were too many...although he did eventually say “Like A Rolling Stone”...if I was to pick three then it would be “The Times They Are A Changin’”, “Gates Of Eden” and “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”...and by the way if anyone is a fan of Dylan then please give Robert Chaney a listen @musicnostalgic recommended him...what a voice this fella has...I watched the whole video in silence when I first saw it...that’s very rare for me...I’d love to see him live!
Cat Stevens
Out of the many tapes that my parents had in the house...I think I overplayed this one...nearly as much as their copies of The Doors...Velvet Underground..and oddly enough...Jasper Carrott LIVE!!! “The Nutter on The Bus” and “The Mole” were hilarious!
Anyway...back to the man of many names...born Stephen Demetre Georgiou he performed under the name Steve Adams for a brief spell before he changed it to Cat Stevens and signed for Decca who released his first song “I Love My Dog”. His first two albums were again (are you seeing a trend here with me?) I feel his best work...songs like “Mathew and Son”, “Northern Wind”, “A Bad Night” and “The First Cut Is The Deepest” propelled him into pop chart crooner territory . Two albums released and he fancied his chances in America and so signed a deal with Island as a song writer and it wasn’t long before people were releasing versions of his songs. “Wild World” was a hit for Jimmy Cliff in the same year that Stevens released it on his album “Tea For The Tillerman”.
As with Dylan...Cat Stevens wrote, composed and sang his own songs and I have fond memories of listening to his first album “Mathew & Son” and singing along to his excellent storytelling lyrics...usually singing very loudly with my bedroom door shut...then turning round embarrassed as my mum is stood there...well...I could have been doing something a lot worse that age!
Lou Reed
Lou Reed...singer songwriter with The Velvet Underground was a troubled genius whose eternal squabbles within his own mind often spilled out into the real world...and most of the time aimed at family and close friends. Electroshock therapy during his college years completely wiped out his short term memory and inspired great rage towards his family...which was also aggravated by early experiences of fame. The Velvet Underground are thought of as being a massively influential rock band these days...but when they hit the scene in the 60s they were ignored by many of the critics and public...favouring the hippie flower power to the Velvets brooding rock. This hurt Reed...he had spent almost 5 years making some of the most inventive and original music of the 60s and nobody cared! What this did though was to make his solo material focus on the crazy everyday things that were happening to him. Throughout his storytelling songs you can really imagine all that stuff happening to him or that he was being told of these things at a party.
He lived on the edge when it came to drugs, sex and rock n roll...meth was a favourite during his Velvets years and his alcohol binges during his solo tours have become quite legendary with one news conference in Italy where he shocked reporters by saying that he had “come to Rome to have sex with the Pope!”. His solo material for me is really eye opening...although I don’t find it to be better than The Velvet Underground stuff...albums like “Transformer” and “Coney Island Baby” have some of his best material...”Satellite Of Love”, “Nowhere At All” and “Walk On The Wild Side” will always have a place in my mind when I think of Sunday afternoons sat listening to music.
Jimi Hendrix
The last but not least of solo artists that my parents inspired me to listen to...although Hendrix wasn’t a hard one to be inspired by. One of the things that always keeps me smiling about Hendrix is not the utter brilliance of the man himself...it’s from one of my dad’s many stories about bands and people that he has met in the 60s. This one story goes that after turning up to see Cream play in Redcar they were told that Ginger Baker wasn’t in any state to play and so it was a wasted journey. They had heard from a friend that Chas Chandler (Bass player with The Animals) had brought a lad over from America to play a few gigs...one of them being at The Kirk...club near Yarm. So they went off to that instead. That lad from America turned out to be Jimi Hendrix...he said he was one of the best live performances he’s ever seen...and he’s seen quite a few. In those days if you were in a band you got to hang around with everyone...luckily enough my dad was...and stupidly maybe on his part he was asked if you wanted Jimi’s guitar by one of the sound engineers...my dad said no...his excuse was that everyone were just friends so they didn’t see any use in taking things like that or see any importance in future value...crazy!!!
One of THE best guitarists of all time...Jimi Hendrix combined a style of hard rock, jazz and blues into soulful unforgettable renditions...”Manic Depression”, ”The Wind Cries Mary”, “Crosstown Traffic” and “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” being my own personal favourites by Hendrix. I can’t not mention his covers though...”Hey Joe”...copyrighted in 1962 by American songwriter Billy Roberts is one of my favourite songs of all time...I say copyrighted as Tim Rose states that he heard a form of it sung as a traditional song (an old song without a known writer) when he was a kid. Then there was Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower” and Cream’s “Sunshine Of Your Love”...most things that Hendrix touched turned to gold. Hendrix got a reputation in the press as a ‘spoilt brat’ in the recording studios if he didn’t get what he wanted but anyone close to him would say that they were just ‘nit-picking’. One of the best quotations of how good he was is from Cream’s Eric Clapton...meeting Clapton was one of the things that Chas Chandler had used to get Hendrix over to London and during the meeting Hendrix had flown into his own rendition of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor” which he played at a high tempo...Clapton left half way through (as he was still trying to learn the song himself) and was caught backstage flustered and puffing on a cigarette saying to Chas Chandler “You didn’t tell me he was that fucking good!!!”...Genius!!!
Peter Gabriel
Probably the first solo artist that I started listening to without the influence of my parents. I wasn’t a fan of Genesis...and I had heard “Solsbury Hill” on the radio but didn’t really appreciate it at the time...”Biko” had been a song I’d heard my brother playing but again I didn’t really get what the song was about at the time (about anti-Apartheid activist Steve Biko who had been beaten and tortured to death under police custody in 1977)...the turning point for me with Peter Gabriel...in a time when music videos started to suck me in to the power of TV and in particular MTV...was when I saw “Shock The Monkey” for the first time. Having looked at the dates that it was released on video...I don’t think..although I’m not too sure if I would have seen it in 1982...that would have made me 7 years old...I’m sure I was older...at least in double figures. It was quite a dark and menacing video and set it apart from the happy and colourful videos of the day...no spandex or glo sticks here! It featured Gabriel in two guises...one as a business man and the other as a tribal monkey man persona...both getting more and more angry and disorientated throughout the video until both characters merging into one with the monkey at the end. Gabriel’s take on it was that it was about love...and how jealousy can release one’s basic instincts...I just thought it was cool.
I remember getting his best album “So” as a Christmas present when it was released so must have been Xmas of ’86. This featured songs like the moody “Red Rain” and “Mercy Street”, the video fun bags “Sledgehammer” and “Big Time” along with the quite brilliant collaboration with Kate Bush on “Don’t Give Up”. Gabriel has also helped finance and found the World of Music, Arts and Dance (WOMAD) festival and also Real World records and studios. Not everyone’s cup of tea..granted..and although I don’t reach for his albums very often...when I was in my early teens I listened to him quite a lot.
David Bowie
Surprisingly this legendary musical chameleon was never played that much in our house. In fact it wasn’t until the mid to late 80s that I started to listen to him properly...I only really knew of him as that bloke strutting with Mick Jagger in “Dancing In The Street”...as soon as I heard “Space Oddity” though everything changed!
If films like Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” and Stanley Kubrick’s “2001” were blowing my mind in sound and visual in the 80s then Mr Bowie slotted in perfectly...he could have easily been a character in either film...(claim to fame...I was born in the same hospital as Ridley Scott!!! North Tees...not a nice claim to fame for me...as it’s on the wrong side of the Tees for my liking!!!). “Space Oddity” was penned after watching Kubrick’s film...stating that he’d watched it stoned out of his head...finding the last part of the film (the trip sequence) “freaked” him out. However it was created...it hit home with the public in England with it being released at the same time that Apollo 11 landed on the Moon...the BBC used his song during the broadcast.
Bowie left this world with a back catalogue that even the best artists would look over with envious eyes. To be perfectly honest...Bowie has meant more to me as I have grown older than he did when I was young. At the time I started listening to him...I was into Joy Division, The Stranglers and The Wedding Present...the Madchester scene was starting to pick up with bands like Inspiral Carpets, Northside, Stone Roses, Charlatans and the Happy Mondays filling up my time with gigs and vinyl...so the album to really stick from him has to be “The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars” and in particular “Moonage Daydream”, “Starman” and “Suffragette City”. The album made him a superstar around the world with Bowie playing the part of Ziggy Stardust – a doomed rockstar and his band The Spiders From Mars. That wasn’t the last time he would change his sound and persona though...shortly after producing albums for Lou Reed and Iggy Pop..he was back with Aladdin Sane and treated us to “The Jean Genie”...my daughter at the age of 4 loved dancing to this...even though a year on she still calls him the “Goblin King”!!! Bless her.
Beck
One of the coolest people on the planet...Beck saw little recognition with albums until he signed to Geffen and released the album “Mellow Gold”...his debut song from that album was “Loser” and was one of the weirdest performances I ever saw on ToTP! He was on stage with a load of old blokes miming to his song while he sang...the combined age on stage was 267. Using a blues slide guitar over the top of hip hop beats along with his nonsensical ramblings gave “Loser” something that music lovers had been missing...some say since the sad demise of Nirvana...but...this was fresh...it was new...and for the indie disco kids...it was an anthem...”In the time of chimpanzees, I was a Monkey”!!!...queue smiling faces...raised pint in one hand and newly acquainted dancefloor friend in the other (usually a bloke who bumped into you and knocked your pint out of your hand not 2 minutes before)!!! His second album released was “Odelay” and is firmly one of the best albums I have in my collection...If you want to read about what I think about it check out my Impossible List blog (so I don’t repeat myself).
What makes Beck stand out though is like his predecessors he was able to change his sound and still remain constantly good. The change in musical style from “Odelay” to “Mutations” is quite startling but still works...for me anyway. From the stripped down “Mutations” he moved on to the more funk-laden “Midnight Vultures” before heading to the serious downcast acoustic “Sea Change” before nearly going full circle and back to his sampling roots with “Guero”. “The Information” and “Morning Guilt” were full of 60s influences with electro-funk with hip hop beats and his latest release “Morning Phase” brought him critical acclaim at the Grammy’s where he won the Album of The Year award.
He hasn’t always produced music that I love but I’d say that I’d happily play at least 90% of his work from over 12 studio albums...songs that are very high on that list “Odelay” (not included) that I play often are “Cellphone’s Dead”, “Nausea” and “Beercan”.
Ian Brown
Let me introduce King Monkey...from the break-up of one of the best bands of the 90s...some say the best band in the world...that produced the best album ever!!!...came Ian Brown..the solo artist...and the only artist in this blog that I’ve actually seen play live...and he was really good.
The difficult first album of a solo artist from a massive band...so many have faltered at this stage...for me...Ian Brown didn’t. His debut album “Unfinished Monkey Business” is a real gem...it was Ian Brown doing the album the way he wanted...and learning as he went along. He had the vision and the ideas to produce music that was very different to the Roses style and with help from various collaborators..the main one being Aziz Ibrahim who followed Brown when The Stone Roses fell to bits. There was trip-hop, hip-hop, electronic, post punk and all within an indie bubble that gave a sometimes quite dark and moody feel but I loved it...and I loved “My Star” what a single to bring out as a statement of intent to the music world.
Songs that shouldn’t really work do and do amazingly...in my opinion anyway...“Sunshine” is a great example of this...sounds like someone was just learning to play a guitar started strumming with Brown’s gnarly voice doing some rhymes over the top...but it’s brilliant. The album is an absolute beaut...and although he has gone on to do other albums with some really good songs...such as “All Ablaze”, “Longsight M13” and “Just Like You” but I always return to his debut..It was a perfect “get over the Stone Roses” album.
Devendra Banhart
I have my good friends Rich and Ali to thank for this one...the first time I heard him we were driving across the runway/road in the pouring rain on our way into Gibraltar to meet some mates for lunch. Rich had his iPod with him and it was his turn to put some songs on..so after a few of his usual crackin’ selections he started playing “Little Yellow Spider” by Devendra Banhart...from the opening lines I was hooked...” Little yellow spider, laughing at the snow / Ah, maybe that spider knows something that I don't know / 'Cause I'm Goddamn cold” all sung alongside a lovely plucked acoustic guitar which could be quite easily a little spiders legs moving quickly over the floor...or is that just me! When I got home I managed to listen to a bit more of his back catalogue and found his fifth album “Cripple Crow” to be outstanding. You definitely get value for money with the 22 songs on offer and it’s one that you can do in a few sittings...but the songs on show are worth it.
Banhart’s music can be quite childlike in nature with piano’s, cello’s and hand-clap percussion with a big dose of hippy-folk thrown in...all that being said...he can also create some of the best acoustic string arrangements that I have heard in a long time.
He was raised in Venezuela and so Spanish was his primary language and therefore there are a few Spanish vocal songs on the album. “Cripple Crow” not only shows that he is coming into his own as a songwriter and a performer but also for what direction he could go in the future. His sometimes warbling voice isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but if you like his voice you’ll love everything else. Songs to get stuck into if you don’t know that much about him are “Long Haired Child”, “Hey Mama Wolf” and “Cripple Crow”...to be honest you could quite easily make your own album of 8-10 songs of this and be very happy...I know I am.
Gruff Rhys
The Super Furry Animals (SFA) are the best band of my generation that I have never seen live! And their frontman...the enigmatic Gruff Rhys is someone that I have admired for a long, long time. Having amassed a wide array of albums and songs with The Super Furry Animals...Gruff had a problem...he had too many ideas for SFA to cope with which lead him into collaborations with people from Simian Mobile Disco, FC Kahuna, Boom Bip and an unforgettable song with De La Soul on the Gorillaz “Plastic Beach” album. It was his solo material though that took him on to his next step. Following the release of his all welsh spoken debut “Yr Atal Genhedlaeth” which is ok as debuts go but not one that sticks in my head..it was mainly full of unfinished songs. His second album was different though...”Candylion” was...well...fun...you get a sense of fun that he must have had making this album...it seems to flow with it. Gone are the electric space suits and tanks that the SFA had fun with...instead you have soft string arrangements and lilting guest vocals from Lisa Jen of 9 Bach (welsh folk group).
It’s an album that ebbs and flows towards SFA material then slightly hops away again but all the while keeps you entertained with at times crazy stories like the one about an animal getting a diploma in desktop publishing. “Hotel Shampoo” was the next album in the production line...and with it came one of my favourite Gruff Rhys songs...”Sensations In The Dark”...he makes such a simple song that was created in minutes about a kids electronic keyboard that he found in a charity shop...the keyboard lights up when you pressed the keys and the song was born. Add to this songs like “Honey All Over” and he was hitting the heights as he was with the SFA. This vein of form progressed into his latest creation “American Interior” which was based on a story of Welshman John Evans who searched for the lost tribe of Welsh-speaking native Americans in 1792. He made an album, a movie and a book out of it.
Johnny Cash
Why is Johnny Cash last on the list? Surely he should be much earlier on your list!!! He should be...but he isn’t...his albums have always been about in my parent’s house it’s just I’ve never really been inspired to listen to him properly. That was until getting to know @musicnostalgic through her radio show on Meridian FM. Knowing that she had listened to him for a long time...not that long as she’s only 21 obviously...I asked her to name a couple of her favourites...so off I went to give them a listen...by the end of the day I had been through all of my Dad’s Johnny Cash albums...and not only that...I had watched “Walk The Line” with Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.
It’s funny how your ideas about music can change due to someone else’s obvious passion for it...now I find Johnny Cash really addictive...songs like “Folsom Prison Blues”, “Big River” and “A Boy Named Sue” are absolute classics. It’s hard to mention Cash without mentioning his covers of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” and Trent Reznor’s “Hurt”. It’s true genius when at the age of 70 he can make a song better than the original...he died within four months of his wife June in September 2003 and I still find it hard to watch the video to “Hurt” without coming close to a tear...and the guitar playing on “Personal Jesus” is just brilliant along with his believable storytelling voice.
Well this feels like it’s been a mammoth session...anyone who has made it this far...well done. Other people of note that could have been mentioned were Damon Albarn, Paul Smith and to a certain extent Richard Ashcroft although I'm not the biggest fan of his solo stuff...but I wanted to stick to people who I inspired me to listen to different artists.
As Always...thanks for reading.
