Broadcasting from near the Thames Delta, featuring hot wax and moods from the Planet Of Sound, the only common theme being random. Let's stick together, consider our child....
Today would have been David Bowie's 71st Birthday. Parlophone have made available a previously unreleased demo to celebrate this fact. A pointer toward a future Record Store Day release or even the next box set?
The demo was recorded in Switzerland with Nile Rodgers - “I woke up on my first morning in Montreux with David peering over me,” he said. “He had an acoustic guitar in his hands and exclaimed, ‘Nile, darling, I think this is a HIT! The time we spent mixing it just before Christmas was full of tears as it felt like David was in the room with us. Happy Birthday David, I love you and we all miss you!”
Produced David Bowie and Nile Rodgers
Engineered by David Richards
Recorded at Mountain Studios, Montreux, Switzerland 19th December, 1982
Mixed by Nile Rodgers & Russell Graham at Le Crib Studios November, 2017
Believe the Hype? Peter Perrett has in the last
40 years released four albums, the last one in 1996. This album has been
garnered with pretty much universal praise, and you’d expect it to do well in
the music monthlies end of year polls on the back of these glowing write ups.
More importantly the two tracks released pre-album are both, at worst, superb.
It’s these two tracks that open the album.
The title track is a drawling look at America
rolling in on a George Harrison/Bob Dylan country style groove, Peters voice,
half sung, half spoken springs from the speakers, up front in the mix and sounds
magnificent. The lyrics cover everything from making suicide vests via internet
instructions to a fascination with Kim Kardashians bum. It’s a great opening
but for me it’s a warm up for the second single/track two. ‘An Epic Story’ is
brilliant, it’s a romantic overture to Peters wife of nearly 50 years, Zena, who
we hear has had to put up with a hell a lot over the years. ‘I’ll always be
your man, No-one could love me the way you can, If I could live my whole life
again, I’d choose you, every time’ are lines any man would be proud to write
for their life’s muse. Honestly, track of the year, hands down. It’s a family
affair too as Peters sons are in his wonderful band.
And then we’re on to the rest of the album,
kept under wraps until the day of release. ‘Hard to Say No’ is a confessional
rock track, well played, sung and lyrically guarded enough to get the listener engaged.
‘Troika’ is tale of a complicated love
affair involving three people, but at its heart Perrett is still devoted to his
one true love, all backed by a wracked and faithful doowop backing. And Peter
sounds great throughout, reviews have made much of the damage done to his voice
through substance and general life abuse and how Peter has had to relearn to
sing, and seriously, his vocal performance is top notch, recognisable, coherent
and confident. Lyrically we’re not a million miles away from previous work, but
there’s great focus and belief. The songs are about survival, re-emergence,
defiance; but most of all devotion and true faith for Zena. This is an acerbic
rock album that manages to be grateful, touching and sweet too. It’s no mean
feat.
There’s no let-up in quality either, no filler
and no one song overstays it’s welcome, in fact the longer tracks seem shorter
than they are, such are their hooks and the attention they demand. This is an
old school album, 10 tracks, an A and a B side, and it’s relentless in a good
way. And it’s an album that builds to a very strong finish too. ‘C Voyeurger’
is a creeping, tense ballad that a really displays a great craftmanship from a
songwriter that (in terms of releases) does not have prolificacy to thank for
helping hone his craft. ‘Something In My Brain’ tries to explain where Perrett
is as far as state of mind is concerned in his current stage of life, ‘…I didn’t
die, At least not yet, I’m still just about capable, Of one last defiant breath’.
His life is pictured as an experiment on a rat, though at the end unlike the
rat Peter has chosen life, defeating the obstacles placed in front of him and
coming out in better shape with a new-found dedication to his life, love and
art. And final track, ‘Take me Home’ brings together all the strings of Peters
life and ties them together, ‘I couldn’t be what I wanted, You made me a better
man’. And so ends a great, concise album, a triumph against the odds. A career
best? Believe the hype, yes. And it leaves you wanting more, this could well be
the last we see from Peter Perrett in terms of new music, but let’s hope not,
it’s intriguing and natural to want to see where the man presented on this
album is able to take himself in the future. But for now, Peter Perrett is
home, a rock troubadour, revelling in the bosom of his family and looking
forward in life.
The 13th.5 – TDWS #21 Podcast - This time round featuring, The The's new song (again), Beck sounding all oldie, a triple from the Trusted, a Lana Del Rey album preview, Radiohead's new old song, Norah Jones' tribute to Chris Cornell, BuckinghamMcVie, Martin Stephenson segued to Miley Cyrus, Arcade Fire, Muse, Liam Gallagher, Rufus Wainwright sings Stevie Wonder at the piano, a great new sweary one from Wolf Alice, a brand new Peter Perrett classic, Glen Campbell and the Cribs.
The 13th.4
– TDWS #20 Podcast. 20 tracks and some natter. Public Service Broadcasting,
Kendrick Lamar and U2, new album previews from Alison Moyet and
Buckingham/McVie, The The, Peter Perrett, Beck and Granddaddy and Kevin Morby
from Resistance Radio, Skids and Blondie, Miley Cyrus, Paul Weller and Stone
Foundation, Marc Almond and Marlena Shaw.
The 13th.3 - TDWS #19 Podcast - 20 tracks and some natter. A couple from The Trusted, Lana Del Rey, a pair from the Volstead Orchestra, Laura Marling, Lambchop sing Prince, Rosalie Cunningham sing The Beatles, At The Drive In, Brett Anderson, Steve Gunn sings The Smiths, JoBoxers, Madeline Peyroux and Rickie Lee Jones sing David Essex, two from Beck, Strand of Oaks sing Phish and The Stone Roses, The Everly Brothers and Radiohead.
Here be the 13th.2, TDWS #18. Within you will find, Underworld, the full length T2 tracks, The Jesus and Mary Chain album preview, Loads of anti trumpism from Gorillaz, The Arcade Fire, the new protest song from Depeche Mode, a further track from Ryan Adams new LP and Ryan sings Radiohead, Paul Weller's soundtrack song. New stuff from BNQT, Future Islands, Jarvis Cocker and Chilly Gonzales, and Goldfrapp. Benjamin Clementine sings Nick Drake, the Thames Delta's Cheap Joint, A couple from Martha Wainwright, U2 from the telly in 1982 and the mystery of Television and Brian Eno.
This is ‘The
13th’, or you might want to call it Thames Delta World Service #17.
A new podcast for a new year. Enclosed within, Muse sing the Cramps, George
Michael Sings the Beatles, Mark Kozelik sings Bowie, Bruce Springsteen sings U2
(with U2). There’s classic b-sides by the Stray Cats, Joe Jackson, Embrace and
Suede. 2017 album previews from Laura Marling, Ryan Adams and Elbow. There’s
also some Martin Stephenson and the Daintees, Paul Simon Unplugged, The early Pink
Floyd, PJ Harvey, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Depeche Mode. And of course there’s Bowie.
This coming
8th January would’ve been David Bowie’s 70th Birthday. So,
let’s shake the seasonal cobwebs away with a dubiously seasonally linked ‘Twelve
Days of Bowie’ call to action. Starting Wednesday 28th December
finishing on the 8th January post your twelve most favourite Bowie
songs and tag ‘30Day David Bowie Song Challenge’ and #12DOB so others can find
your posts. 28th – 5th can be a bubbling under selection,
some of your faves in no particular order. 6th -8th post
your 3,2,1 so the great man’s birthday itself will find the internet chocca
with Bowie’s finest. Post video links if you wish, but say a little as to what
the song means to you or why it’s such a favourite. Tell your Bowie loving
friends, spread the word!
