Harry Hippie - Bobby Womack

I had hoped this was a 'get a job, kill all hippies, and don't patronise me, Whitey' message to the pasty-faced free love freeloaders, but after some uncharacteristic research, I discovered that it's about Bobby Womack's brother Harry. Boo and hiss.

Despite all their songs about times a changin', love being all you need and, er, playing the pipes of peace, sixties pop stars actually did sod all for peace or the civil rights movement, save for opening the odd trout farm or spending a week in bed for peace with some ropey Japanese performance artist.

"Look out kid, they keep it all hid." Yeah, usually in some offshore bank account or behind a loose brick in the wine cellar, next to that case of Chateau Margaux and money they got from Yuri, the Czech promoter, for that cash-in-hand football stadium gig in Liberec.

> Download this (4.4 MB)

So Far Away - Root & Jenny Jackson

Here's some Caribbean culture from Northern England. Yes, it's reggae-tinged pop soul for those of you with a taste for Malibu and Lilt, rum and raisin ice cream and Aswad.

Leeds-based Root and Jenny Jackson were a kind of Northern Ike and Tina Turner. They were whippet deep, mountain high. One hopes that Jenny didn't have to endure any Ike-esque beatings dished out by Root, but it's highly likely as they were from Yorkshire and that's what passes for affection up there.

With artists like Root and Jenny Jackson, Ram John Holder and Eddy Grant, the British light reggae scene from the seventies is one of my favourite sub genres. As a niche pop sound it's up there with medieval disco; a style of music found only on the soundtracks to Krull and Hawk the Slayer.

> Download this (2.6 MB)

Manifesto & Book News

If it's ever been on K-Tel or Ronco, it's in. If it features hand claps, cow bells, syrupy orchestration, walls of sound, wrecking crews, sha-la-las, toothy teen idols, candy-based metaphors for carnal acts or lyrics about hugging, squeezing and rocking all night long, it's in.

Authentic frontier gibberish



> Martin Lampen (latest book news, contact details and other stuff)

Collect 'em all: week 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100 | 101 | 102 | 103 | 104 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108 | 109 | 110 | 111 | 112 | 113 | 114 | 115 | 116 | 117 | 118 | 119 '| 120 | 121 | 122 | 123 | 124 | 125 | 126 | 127 | 128 | 129 | 130 | 131 | 132 | 133 | 134 | 135 | 136 | 137 | 138 | 139 | 140 | 141 | 142 | 143 | 144 | 145 | 146 | 147 | 148