Marvin Gaye - what's going on

Well one of the masterpieces of soul music released in 1971, one of the great albums of the 1970s blah blah. But is it any good? The album was a reflection of all that was going wrong with America after the 60s such as police brutality, poverty and despair (so much has changed right?)

The problem with "historic" albums is that they carry so much weight and baggage its hard to assess them in their own right. Are you liking this song because you generally like it or because you are afraid of being uncool if you don't? Happily this album is full of good tunes though the history and contextual impact outweigh anything else. In the early 1970s this was Earth-shattering, nowadays its simply very good. Enjoy the pop beauty of "Mercy mercy me" and "What's happening brother" and the slinky groove of "Right on" and the world might seem a better place.

Susan Christie - paint a lady

It might sound really odd these days that record companies could pay for albums to be produced and then not release it but it did happen quite a bit in the olden days, and Susan Christie's album "paint a lady" is an example of one. She had a minor hit with a novelty pop song in the late 1960s and then went onto make an album of psychedelic folk however it was not released by Columbia as it was not thought commercial enough.

Happily the album was finally released in 2006, 36 years late, and what do Columbia know? Its a really nice record, a bit strange perhaps and unpredictable with its sometimes haunting and sometimes funky melodies and introspective atmosphere but it wasn't too far out for 1970 by any means. Pick of the album is the cover of "Ghost riders in the sky", one of the best versions of this song i've heard.

MV : "Heroes" by David Bowie

We can be heroes, just for one day...

Movie : George & Mildred (1980)

A spate of British sitcoms (and a few dramas) went on the "big screen" in the 1970s, none really have had any lasting impact on the world of cinema though Porridge and Sweeney 2 are both decent films. The film version of George & Mildred however is widely regarded as one of the worst films ever made and a film so bad it actually killed off the genre...

Well thats that everyone else says, of course this blog likes to make it's own mind up. But yes the film version of George & Mildred is pretty awful, however it often becomes "so bad its good" that it is worth seeing at least once and has a few decent jokes. One problem with the film is that its so different from the sitcom it came from, most of the action taking place in a "swanky" hotel not outer London suburbia. Wrapped around George and Mildred's trip to the hotel is a bit of a farce involving rival gangsters and useless assassins, but of course G&M are completely oblivious to the chaos happening around them. So a terrible terrible film (but there are far worse) and i liked it!

MV : "Rainy day" by Susan Christie

Lovely song, just bought the album this is off in fact...

MV : "Theme from an unmade silent movie" by Hurricane Smith

Footie memories.

Grateful Dead - blues for Allah

The 8th studio album by the Grateful Dead came out in 1975 and is rightly regarded as one of the band's best studio albums. The album tapped, perhaps more than most of their studio work, into the freeform rock/jazz/blues/add-a-few-more-genres-here creativity of the band's live shows and gave us songs like the melodious "Franklin's Tower" which is one of my all-time favourites.

Much of the album is a mysterious soundscape, as you would imagine tracks with titles like "Unusual occurances in the desert" would be! Sometimes it does get a bit tedious and self-indulgent however there is also some lovely rock songs here in the form of "The music never stopped" and the aforementioned tower.

Movie : Oily Maniac (HK 1976)

If there is to be an award for the film with the best title ever then this 70s Shaw Brothers film may be in with a shout. Using Malay witchdoctor magic a cripple having a hard time (played by Danny Lee Sau-Yin) transforms himself into an oily maniac, or to be precise a monster made out of oil, and basically busts some (oily) ass...

Low-concept maybe but definately high-cheese, this is an entertaining 70s shock horror flick. The special effects are not fabulous but then again it was made in the mid-70s and that is maybe part of the appeal. There is also plenty of female nudity in the film, a number of women in their film get their clothes ripped off. Yeah its that kind of film. Sex and oily monsters. What more could you want?

A plot maybe? Well there is one more or less. Mind you the plot is full of holes. A monster made out of oil does have one rather large design flaw, but no one seems to realise this until the end. So is this film any good? It is definitely worth seeing, but no doubt a great part of the appeal is the fact it is called Oily Maniac...

MV : "Gone but not forgotten" by Kristine Sparkle

Great 70s sounds.

MV : "Scarlet begonias" by The Grateful Dead

Classic track.

Movie : Stacey (1973)

Stacey (ex-Playboy Playmate of the month Anne Randall) is a hot action babe who fights crime and has lots of sex. She also drives fast cars and is very handy with a gun. Truthfully this early film by Andy Sidaris is ridiculous sexploitation tosh but has a compelling air about the nonsense. Its fun and entertaining which puts it above a lot of other films to be honest...

Stacey is hired to investigate the heirs of a rich old lady and quickly uncovers a nest of sex, blackmail, violence, sex, nudity, murder and more sex. Suffice to say its not high art and not exactly world class cinema but on the whole its well worth seeing.

Shapes & Shadows - Psychedelic Pop And Other Rare Flavours From The Chapter One Vaults 1968-72

The endless depths of the late 60s/70s psychedelic vaults produce yet another compilation of obscurity, this time from the Chapter One label (no me neither). As usual this is a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly. The good is pretty good though, i like the soaring vocal of Jason Cord on the epic "Spring never came twice" and The Californians' cover of "You got your troubles" is very decent. March Hare's "cry my heart" is a sweet song with some interesting tempo changes that moves from melancholy to sunny pop in a heartbeat. Sad People's "lonely man" is quite as you might imagine, a reflective organ led pop track.

Nothing else stands out that much though there is plenty of enjoyable music on here, some great bands names too like Tandem and Philwit & Pegasus.

MV : "Run back" by Carl Douglas

Carl's other hit, love this track!

Mike Nesmith & the First National Band - magnetic south

From 1970 Mike Nesmith's first solo album after leaving the Monkees and a superb musical treat it is too. The early 70s saw one strand of 60s psychedelia morph into country rock and this album is an early example of that. Its at once harking back to the past and looking forward, steeped in Americana. "Joanne" is a highlight, a sweet country ballad. "Mama nantucket" also rollicks along complete with yodelling!

MV : "Bertha Butt Boogie" by Jimmy Castor

Funky ..er.. boogie.

Kristine Sparkle - devil woman

Late 60s pop singer Christine Holmes became Kristine Sparkle in the 70s and went glam. She never saw much success as a singer but scored a big hit as a songwriter with her song Devil woman which Cliff Richard took to the top 10. This album is an amazing mixed bag, including Kristine's lovely original version of Devil woman as well as some zany glam rock covers of songs by the likes of the Beatles.

Her cover of "Eight days a week" is great fun, her glam rock version of the Hokey cokey (no honestly) is also enjoyable despite being wrong on so many levels. This collection of songs is terrific, as a pop album its hard to beat with so many gems and surprises.

Jerry Garcia - Garcia

Jerry Garcia's first solo album from 1972 was a very solo affair indeed with the great man playing most of the instrument parts himself. Its a very strong album too with a strong folk-psychedelia blues rock vibe, a number of the songs later becoming part of the Grateful Dead's repertoire.

Highlights are the superb blues-rock of "Sugaree", the skanky folk of "Deal" and the astral cowboy epic "To lay me down", steel guitar taking you into outer space. Man.

MV : "Yes sir i can boogie" by Baccara

One of the first, if not the first, songs i can actually remember.

Velvet Tinmine

Velvet Tinmine brings together 20 long glam rock tracks from the early 1970s. For every Gary Glitter and T.Rex there were a number of Iron Virgins, Tartan Hordes and Tubthumpers which all need to be revisited for the cool band names alone.

Iron Virgin begin proceedings with "rebels rule" which is a very acceptable glam stomp. Other highlights include Plod (great name) with "neo city" which is slinky and sleezy rock. Hello's "another school day", Flame's "big wheels turning" and Washington Flyers' "the comets are coming" are both interesting and accomplished rock tracks. Truthfully there is nothing that terrible here and plenty that with a bit more luck could have hit the big time. Its called glam rock but really its great pop, often throwaway but so immediate with great melodies (if sometimes not that original) a plenty.

MV : "January" by Pilot

While researching for another website i found out this song was the top song in February 1975, which amused me.