Loveydovey Lovely One - Junior Wells

Some storming Black Rockabilly from second string bluesman Junior Wells. I say 'second string' because he didn't sell his soul to the devil, he just swapped it for the circus Fuzzy Felt set and a bucket of mixed Stickle Bricks.

Despite it's raunchy guitar line and wild, yelping vocal track Loveydovey Lovely One, unlike most Black Rock 'n' Roll of the Fifties, contains no sexual innuendo or smutty 'Someone's been baking bread in my oven and eating my Jellyroll' type culinary allusions.

In fact, from the foot-tappin' rise of Motown until the swaggering dawn of Rap, romance was the main lyrical currency of Black American Music. When in 1976 Stevie Wonder sang 'Isn't She Lovely' about a new born baby, it was a lyrical style that would have seemed excessively gooey in either 1954 or 2004.

The apotheosis of soft, fluffy soul came in in 1979 when Stevie Wonder released 'The Secret Life of Plants', a ballad-heavy concept album that explored the spiritual connection between people and plants...

Stevie Wonder's love of plants continued unabated until he unwrapped the cactus I gave him last Christmas.

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Cotton Candy Sandman - Harpers Bizarre

I guess this is what's known in hipper, more urban circles as "keeping it real", "harking back to one's roots", "going old skool", and, er, "passing the duchy". Yes, it's some soft pop gibberish about marshmallow skies, strawberry fizzes, plum duff, Capri Sun lime, universal love, happiness and powerful hallucinogens.

Sixties psychedelic pop was obsessed with tuck shops, fizzy sweets, iced gems, toasted teacakes with margarine with Marjorie and the collected works of Lewis Carrol. It's as if the creative cornerstones of the counter culture were Beatrix Potter and the pick 'n' mix counter at Woolworths.

Even the Bee Gees, future masters of the direct love song, were not immune to the lure of the twee and the sugar-coated. Early somgs by the Brothers Gibb included 'Town Of Tuxley Toymaker', 'Cucumber Castle' and 'Spicks and Specks'.

Other bizzare early Bee Gees song titles for you to cut-out and keep are: 'Mrs. Gillespie's Refrigerator', 'Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You', 'Gilbert Green' and 'Maypole Mews'. Put them on your shelf next to your gymkhana trophies, Wuzzles and Franklin Mint Captain Kirk kittens.

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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.

Wish I'd never been born



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

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